Health Minister: Bangladesh to get 5 million doses of vaccine each week

Health and Family Welfare Minister Zahid Maleque on Friday said Bangladesh will get five million doses of Covid-19 vaccine each week till November.

"We have intensified our efforts to purchase Covid-19 jabs to accelerate the ongoing vaccination campaign to contain the deadly virus," he made the comments while visiting the Bangladesh Dental Surgeon examination at Government Titumir College in Dhaka.  

The health minister said the government has decided to purchase 165 million more Covid-19 vaccines from China and WHO facilities. These vaccines are expected to arrive in Bangladesh by January next year, he added.

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"Bangladesh will get 20 million doses of Sinopharm vaccines from China each month. Meaning 60 million jabs of Sinopharm will arrive in the country within three months," Maleque added.         

The health ministry sources said the government is planning to vaccinate 15 to 20 million people from the next month.

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The DGHS sources said the country already reached or finalized deals with different countries and companies as part of the procurement process to vaccinate the target 130 million people by 2022. As of September 10, Bangladesh collected nearly 40 million vaccine doses, they added.

Bangladesh has so far approved eight Covid-19 vaccines to control the deadly disease.

The approved Covid-19 vaccines are from Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, CoronaVac, Pfizer, Covishield, Sputnik V, AstraZeneca, and Sinopharm.