Bangladesh gets 1.2 vaccines through COVAX

Bangladesh has received over 1.2 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine donated by Switzerland, Sweden and Norway through the global COVAX facility, reports UNB.

Ambassadors of the three countries symbolically handed over the donations to the government of Bangladesh at a ceremony held at the state guesthouse Padma on Sunday afternoon.

Senior secretary of the Health Services Division LokmanHossian Miah, received the vaccines on behalf of the government of Bangladesh.

Secretary (West) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other senior government officials were also present at the event.

In their joint statement, the ambassadors of Sweden, Switzerland and Norway highlighted the importance of an effective multilateral response to the global pandemic and reiterated their countries’ commitment to the rapid and equal global access to safe and effective Covid-19 vaccines.

Living up to their global engagement, the three countries have each pledged financial support to the multilateral “Access to Covid-19 Tools Accelerator” (ACT-A) initiative and have donated vaccines to its COVAX facility.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, they have also bilaterally contributed to various frontline initiatives across Bangladesh, reaching the most vulnerable and remote communities.

During the event, the ambassadors welcomed the decision of COVAX to allocate and deliver over 1.2 million AstraZeneca Covid vaccines to Bangladesh.

The delivery contains 535200 doses donated by Sweden, 446000 by Switzerland, and 237600 by Norway to the COVAX facility.

The ambassadors also thanked UNICEF for organising the shipment and handover of the vaccines to the Government of Bangladesh.