Oxford vaccine to be brought as soon as it gets approval: Health minister

Bangladesh has signed an agreement to collect doses of Oxford University’s COVID-19 vaccine. The vaccine, developed by AstraZeneca, will be brought to the country as soon as it gets the approval for marketing.

Everyone will get the vaccine shots in phases, health minister Zahid Malik said this on Saturday after inaugurating a reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) lab in Colonel Malek Medical College Hospital in Manikganj.

“Not a single death is desirable. However, 15 to 20 people are dying from COVID-19 every day in Bangladesh, where the number is 700-800 in the developed countries.”

“COIVD-19 caught every affected country of the world off guard. We had no idea about its treatment, there was no advanced lab in the country for COVID-19 test either,” the minister said.

“With the inauguration of the lab at Colonel Malek Medical College, we have 115 RT-PCR labs in the country now. The government is planning to set up one RT-PCR lab and medical college in each district,” he added.