FM Momen: Bangladesh on track to get 240 million Covid jabs by March-April

Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen on Wednesday sounded hopeful regarding the collection of Covid-19 vaccine doses, saying Bangladesh is on track to get 240 million doses either in March or April next year.

"Vaccine doses are coming under the Covax facility, as gifts and from other sources," he told reporters on the sidelines of the Fifth International Conference on Inclusive Business organized by the Dutch-Bangla Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DBCCI) in Dhaka.

Momen said that Bangladesh needs 260 million doses and some jabs would be produced at home too. "However, there is no update on vaccine cooperation with Russia due to the Covid-19 situation there."

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He said that half of the 160 million people of Bangladesh are young, while 22 million people have already been vaccinated.

Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen addresses the ‘5th International Conference on Inclusive Business’ at a hotel in Dhaka on Wednesday, September 15, 2021 PID

"Despite significant vaccination in Bangladesh, the United Kingdom kept Bangladesh in the red list which is very unfortunate," he said.

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Earlier, Momen reiterated Bangladesh’s call to remove the country from the red list, terming the British government's decision "unfair and discriminatory".

"It's unfair and it's discrimination [to Bangladesh]," he said, while talking to a small group of journalists at his office on Monday. 

Referring to the sufferings of more than 7,000 British-Bangladeshis currently stranded in Bangladesh, Momen said the UK government is doing a disservice to its own citizens.

"The UK government gave an argument that the vaccination rate is low in Bangladesh, but Bangladesh says that the UK is allowing people from other countries having lower vaccination rate," he added.