Kazi Zahiidul Hasan :
Bangladesh has launched an all-out diplomatic efforts to secure Covid-19 vaccines from India and other manufacturers amid shortfall in vaccine caused by India’s halt in exports.
Officials said hectic diplomatic efforts have already been launched to bring shots from India though the country imposed a ban on the export of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, which is produced by Serum Institute.
Indian Ambassador in Dhaka has gone to Delhi to ensure vaccine supply to Bangladesh.
Bangladesh signed a commercial deal with Serum Institute of India (SII) in 2020 to buy three crore (30 million) of doses of the vaccine.
According to the contract, Dhaka is supposed to get 50 lakh (5 million) shots per month from January to June this year. But it only received 70 lakh (7 million) doses under the deal in the first two months of the year, according to data from India’s Foreign Ministry.
The other 33 lakh (3.3 million) doses were donated by the Indian government as per its vaccine diplomacy.
Public health experts fear that Bangladesh’s mass vaccination programme that began in February this year could be severely disrupted by India’s decision to halt the export of vaccines made by SII in order to prioritize domestic demand amid a sharp rise in Covid-19 cases and death toll.
They said Bangladesh needs to ensure new supply of vaccines by early May. Otherwse, it will be challenging for the country to continue smooth inaculation.
Official sources said there is a shortage of 12 lakh ( 1.2 million) vaccine doses required to administer the second dose vaccine. Meanwhile, the first dose of vaccine has been halted due to uncertainty over supply.
“Dhaka has intensified diplomatic efforts to secure supplies of vaccines from Delhi. At the same time, efforts are on to acquire jabs from new sources like Russia and China,” a foreign ministry official told The New Nation wishing not to be named.
Her said the government is seriously considering importing Chinese and Russian Covid-19 vaccines in order to mainatin the ongoing mass vaccination programme.
“Dhaka and Moscow have already engaged in negotiation for co-production arrangement of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine
in Bangladesh. Besides, China also agreed to give vaccine to us. At the beginning, China will give 600,000 doses of vaccines as a gift. China’s vaccine will arrive in Bangladesh soon.” he added.
The Directorate General of Drug Administration (DGDA) on Tuesday gave the emergency usage authorisation to Russian Covid-19 vaccine “Sputnik V” in a bid to administer its jabs in Bangladesh.
Sputnik V is a double dose vaccine and each dose would cost $12, while the two doses of AstraZeneca vaccine costs $10,” officials sources said.
They said the DGDA is also actively considering emergency usage authorisation to the Covid-19 vaccines from Sinopharm of China to mitigate the vaccine shortage.
“The government of Bangladesh is desperately looking for alternative sources after SII failed to comply with the commitment to supply three crore (30 million) vaccine shots in six installments,” said the foreign ministry official, adding, “In the wake of uncertainty over getting purchased doses from India, Bangladesh also agreed to join China’s Covid-19 vaccine storage facility for South Asia.”
He also mentioned that the government is seriously working to bring fresh vaccine supply in the country so that the ongoing mass inoculation programme remains unhurt. “It has also said that the government has fixed priority to vaccine most of the Bangladesh population as soon as posible to save lives from the deadly virus as well as to counter its adverse impact on the country’s economy.”
Meanwhile, the Foreign Ministry wrote to the US Ambassador to Bangladesh Earl R. Miller urging the Biden administration to share surplus doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine with Bangladesh which is currently experiencing the deadly surge in Covid-19 cases.
The number of surplus vaccines available-after every American has been vaccinated-is estimated to be around 70 million, according to media reports.
“The government is exploring three alternative sources-Russia, China and the USA-to get Covid-19 vaccines. It will take at least two weeks to complete the process,” Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen told reporters at his residence on Tuesday.
He said Bangladesh has been waiting for Covishield doses that it purchsed from SII, but has not received it despite repeated reminders. “Talks with India are also underway to get at least two to three million doses of vaccine for addressing our immediate need,” he added.
Momen also said China will give six lakh doses of vaccine as a gift and hoped that Bangladesh will get a vaccine through commercial purchase soon.
An official of DG Health said the authorities are now reviewing a total of five vaccines from the US, China and Russia. Of them, one or two of the vaccines would be used as alternatives.
Furthermore, the government has taken an initiative to procure another 30 million doses of vaccines by inviting international open tenders and is also looking at the purchase of 30 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine with UNDP funding.
On average, more than 16,000 residents apply for vaccines daily, according to the latest report by the Health Ministry. And more than 150,000 receive a vaccine jab every day.
If the vaccination campaign continues at the current rate, the stock of vaccines will be finished by the first week of May.
As of Tuesday, nearly 6.0 million people have received first dose of Covid-19 vaccine and 2.45 million got second dose, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
So the country has just 1.7 million doses in stock.
Until Tuesday, nearly 7.15 million people have registered for inoculation.
Bangladesh is now passing through a worsening second wave of the pandemic with nearly 100 daily casualties. The new wave of the virus has seen daily infections rise sevenfold and deaths triple. In total, around 751,659 cases and over 11,228 deaths have been recorded so far.
