Raza Mahmud :
The vaccine consignments have come to the country under the Covax facility run by the World Health Organization (WHO) and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.
The Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) is yet to decide how the jabs will be used.
Besides, there is no fresh information about other vaccines, including Oxford-AstraZeneca jabs, DGHS officials said.
Sources of the DGHS have said that the vaccine may be deployed and inoculated among the Dhaka people, as the preservation facilities of the vaccines is hardly found beyond the capital city.
When contacted, Professor Dr. Robed Amin, Spokesman of the DGHS told The New Nation on Tuesday, “The authorities are yet to sit and plan how, where and when the Pfizer jabs will be administered.”
He said, meeting will be held soon about plan details regarding inoculation of the Pfizer vaccine.
The spokesman says that the Pfizer vaccine is double shot oriented, so the authorities have to think about collection of the second dose of the vaccine.
The authorities are yet to plan about what is to be done if they collect more doses beside the GAVI Alliance’s consignment or whether they will keep half of the jabs ensuring the second dose for the recipients.
“The authorities have to plan whether they will keep half of those vaccines for the use of the second shots or to buy more from abroad. All of those matters will be decided in the next meeting,” Dr. Robed Amin said.
Talking to The New Nation, the Spokesman said the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine has to be preserved in minus 70 degree Celsius refrigerators. There are very few refrigerators having such standard in the country and most of those freezers are remaining in the capital.
He said one or two such a refrigerators may remain in Chittagong, but it is unlikely to deploy the vaccines in the port city due to lack of facilities of refrigerator chains.
The Directorate General of Drug Administration (DGDA) approved the Pfizer vaccine for emergency use in Bangladesh on Thursday.
Earlier, an evaluation panel recommended its emergency use on May 25.
The Pfizer-BioNTech covid-19 vaccines have come at a time when the country is on combat against the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic amid a supply shortage of jabs.
The country is on struggle with supply deficit of the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, which was supposed to be delivered by Serum Institute of neighboring India.
Professor ABM Khurshid Alam, Director General of the DGHS, earlier said that the residents of Dhaka, waiting for their first Covid-19 vaccine dose after signing up on the national vaccine registration platform Surokkha, would get the Pfizer shots after arriving of its first consignment.
