Reza Mahmud :
Bangladesh is in the state of uncertainty over administering the second dose of coronavirus vaccine amid India’s temporarily ban on exporting the AstraZeneca/Oxford University shot produced by Serum Institute.
Sources said, as per the agreement signed with India’s Serum Institute, Bangladesh was supposed to get about 1.5 crore doses of covid vaccine by March. But the reality is that 70 lakh doses only of the jabs arrived.
The Indian government, however, has gifted about 32 lakh doses of the vaccine as a friendship gesture.
In this circumstances, the Serum Institute failed to provide its jabs as per the MoU signed with the Bangladesh government and the mediator Beximco Pharmacuticals Limited.
The Serum Institute was supposed to provide 50 lakh doses of the vaccine per month and to deliver total three crore doses of the vaccine within six months.
Among the supply, Serum delivered full 50 lakh doses of the jabs in January. But it provided only 20 lakh doses in February saying it would sand the remaining doses shortly. But the company failed to deliver any more consignment so far.
With this account, Bangladesh got a total of one crore and two lakh doses of vaccine.
Meanwhile, the Bangladesh government started mass vaccination programme on February 7.
It has administered about 55 lakh jabs so far while about 69 lakh people have been registered for vaccination.
In these circumstances, more 14 lakh people are waiting for the first shots so far while the registration process continues.
Besides, 47 lakh doses only of the vaccine are in stock so far to meet the total programme including waiting people for first dose and the second doses for those who got the first shots.
Sources said Serum has kept Bangladesh authorities in dark about when and how many doses of the vaccine it will send in the next consignment although the country has
a shortage of vaccine doses to continue its vaccination programme, including its plan to begin the second dose administration on April 8. “We do not know when the next shipment of the vaccine will arrive and how many doses will be there in the shipment,” said Beximco Pharma Chief Operating Officer Rabbur Reza.
“We have no update available now from Serum,” he told media on Thursday. Bangladesh’s National Vaccine Deployment Committee Member-Secretary Shamsul Islam, said that they were not being informed about the vaccine supply from India’s Serum.
“We are outlining the second dose administration plan, but we do not have an adequate number of doses,” he told media. With the doses in hands, the second dose administration will begin on April 8, said Shamsul Islam.
“We have a shortage of doses, but the government high-ups could tell how we could manage,” he said.
India has reportedly put a temporary hold on all major exports of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine manufactured at Serum in a bid to meet the country’s home demand.
Bangladesh health officials said that they were not aware about any decision of India to ban the export of the vaccine.
“When we had made the plan, we had assumed that the vaccine doses would arrive, but no (purchased) shots arrived in March. Won’t we be in huge trouble if the Serum Institute can’t give us the vaccine,” said Dr Mohammad Robed Amin, a spokesman for the Directorate General of Health Services.
Public health expert Be-Nazir Ahmed said that the government must give a statement before the nation about the vaccine supply from Serum, outlining whether there is any uncertainty and what would be the vaccination plan when the country has a shortage of doses.
Professor Dr. Muzaherul Huq, former Advisor of World Health Organisation told The New Nation, “The government must try to collect the jabs from other sources.”
Health Minister Zahid Maleque recently told the media that the government had asked the Serum Institute of India about the matter through Beximco Pharmaceuticals, the exclusive distributor of the vaccine in Bangladesh. But no timescale has been confirmed. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina strongly urged her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi to send the vaccine doses in time during his March 26-27 visit to Bangladesh, Zahid Maleque said.
“They (India) said they will make arrangements to send the doses. But we haven’t got a date yet,” he said.
The health minister said, “India should not stop sending the vaccine doses purchased under the deal.”
“If the supply is disrupted, it will affect the trend of vaccination a bit,” he said.
