Kazi Zahidul Hasan :
The government has released Tk 267.75 crore to augment supplies of Sinopharm’s Covid-19 vaccines in the country.
The Finance Ministry released the fund on Monday to support the government procurement and the vaccination programme.
“We have cleared Tk 267.75 crore to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) as ‘third tranche’ advance payment for the Sinopharm vaccine, produced by the Beijing Institute of Biological Products Co Ltd,” a Finance Ministry official told The New Nation yesterday on condition of anonymity.
“The DGHS must properly follow the Public Procurement Act-2006 and Public Procurement Rules-2008 during the expenses of the allocated fund.”
Earlier, in June and July the Ministry of Finance has made disbursement of Tk 527 crore to the helath directorate as ‘first and second tranche’ advance payment for the procurement of China’s Sinopharm vaccine. The funds have been given to the DGHS from the current fiscal’s budgetary allocation.
The budget for the fiscal year (202-22) allocated Tk 10,000 crore to meet the emergency requirements arising out of the Covid pandemic in the country.
On May 27 this year, a government committee had approved the purchase of 15 million (1.5 crore) doses of the Sinopharm vaccine.
Bangladesh has so far received 7.0 million doses of procured vaccines from China.
In November 2020, the Health Ministry signed a tripartite contract with the Serum Institute of India (SII) and local Beximco Pharmaceuticals Limited to import three crore doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid vaccine.
The country has so far received 70,00,000 doses of the vaccine from the Serum for $5, equivalent to Tk 425, each dose.
Bangladesh’s nationwide vaccination drive began on February 7 with AstraZeneca-Oxford University vaccine, produced by SII under the brand name ‘Covishield.’
More than 13.76 million doses of four types of vaccines- AstraZeneca-Oxford University (Covishield), Sinopharm, Moderna and Pfizer-were administered as on August 2, including the first and second shots.
Besides, the government has decided to launch Covid-19 vaccination at union level on-the-spot registration from August 7 in a bid to bolster the nationwide drive.
