Another 2.5m Pfizer vaccine doses due Monday

Another 2.5 million more doses of Pfizer vaccine under COVAX facility are scheduled to reach Dhaka on Monday, reports UNB.

A cargo flight of National Airlines, carrying the vaccine doses gifted by the USA, will land at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport around 10:15pm, said officials at the health ministry.

US ambassador to Bangladesh Earl R Miller and director general of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) Abul Bashar Mohammad Khurshid Alam will be present at the airport to receive the vaccine jabs.

Earlier, Bangladesh received over 100,000 doses of Pfizer vaccine in the first phase and 10,03,000 doses in the second phase from the US.

With the fresh consignment, Bangladesh will receive a total of 36,04,000 doses of the vaccine.

So far, the country has received 494,00,000 doses of Astra Zeneca, Sinopharm and Moderna vaccines under COVAX facility. Of these, 2,41,97,598 people got their first dose while 1,60,33,971 the second dose till 25 September, according to the health ministry.

Besides, a process to bring 20 million doses of Sinopharm vaccine each month is underway.

Apart from this, another process to procure 240 million doses of vaccine through the World Health Organisation is going on.

Bangladesh started administering the first doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine at three centres in Dhaka to fight off Covid-19 on 21 June.

The United States said it is committed to leading the global response to the Covid-19 pandemic and they will begin this summer the allocation of 500 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine it is providing to Gavi for distribution by COVAX to countries around the world.

US president Joe Biden reaffirmed this commitment by announcing that his country will donate 80 million doses of vaccines to support global needs.

The US is working with its G7 partners, the EU, COVAX, and others in a multilateral effort focused on saving lives, ending the pandemic, and supporting the global economic recovery.