bdnews24.com :
Health Minister Zahid Maleque hopes that the next shipment of the Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine purchased by the government from the Seram Institute of India will arrive in Dhaka in a couple of days. Up to three million doses of the vaccine may come in the next shipment,
he said. “We have received this information from Beximco,” he said. That’s what they told us.”
Bangladesh signed an agreement in November to buy 30 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine from the Serum Institute of India (SII), the world’s biggest vaccine-maker.
According to the agreement, Beximco Pharmaceuticals, the sole distributor of the vaccine, is responsible for supplying the doses in Bangladesh.
India has put a temporary hold on all major exports of the AstraZeneca coronavirus shot made by the SII, to meet domestic demand as infections rise, Reuters reported last week.
The move will also affect supplies to the GAVI/WHO-backed global COVAX vaccine-sharing facility, through which 64 poorer countries are supposed to get doses from the SII, the programme’s procurement and distributing partner UNICEF told Reuters.
Deliveries will be delayed in March and April “as the government of India battles a new wave of COVID-19 infections,” GAVI, an alliance of countries, companies and charities that promote vaccination, said in a statement.
COVAX was in talks with India to “ensure some supplies are completed during March and April,” it said, adding that the SII had supplied 28 million doses to COVAX. An additional 40 million doses had been expected in March and up to 50 million doses in April.
India has so far exported more than 60.5 million doses globally, according to the foreign ministry’s website.
India, however, gifted 3.2 million doses of the shot to Bangladesh in two phases.
