No alternative to increasing import as we're lagging behind in vaccination

Bangladesh is still lagging behind in vaccination despite the government’s efforts to procure vaccines from various sources. According to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), over 40 million people have received the first dose of the coronavirus vaccine, which is nearly one-fourth of the total population. More than 20 million people have got both doses.

As of Sunday, as many as 4,289,449 people have received the first dose of the coronavirus vaccine. In total, some 6,883,363 doses of vaccine have been administered so far in the country.

The government launched the countrywide vaccination campaign on 8 February. The target was to vaccinate 80 per cent of the total population. As such, some 260 million doses of the vaccine will be needed to meet the goal. The procurement of the vaccine needs to be increased further as the government decided to vaccinate students aged between 12 to 17 years as well.

The fact that Bangladesh is lagging behind in terms of vaccination among the South Asian countries is not pleasant at all. India has already administered one billion doses of vaccine. Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bhutan are also ahead of Bangladesh in this regard. The reason for this is our dependency on a single source.

Bangladesh signed an agreement with the Serum Institute of India to procure 30 million doses of the vaccine. However, they failed to supply vaccines as per the agreement as the Indian government imposed a ban on vaccine export due to the increase in coronavirus transmission in India. Bangladesh has recently received the first consignment of vaccine from the Serum Institute after the ban was lifted. However, none can confirm as to when the rest of the vaccines will arrive.

Afterwards, Bangladesh purchased vaccines from various countries including China, Russia and the USA. Most of them are Sinopharm vaccines from China. Bangladesh also received some vaccines from the COVAX initiative and Pfizer. But still there is a huge gap between the supply and the demand. Three million doses of the vaccine were due in October; however, we have received a lot less than that. But the government has assured us that we will receive a huge amount of vaccines within a very short time.

The main reason for the slow pace in the procurement of the vaccine is that the exporting countries and COVAX are unable to supply rapidly as per the demand. In this case, we need to intensify our communications at the commercial and diplomatic levels. We have been saying from the start that we should give all-out efforts for the procurement of the vaccine. We also have to ensure that Bangladesh is not victimised by geopolitics. As coronavirus is a global problem, the exporting and manufacturing countries cannot deprive others of the vaccine.

The experts are not sure about the durability of the effectiveness of the vaccine or whether a booster dose is needed or not. Even if it has a long lasting effect, we should have the preparation for booster dose. And if the effectiveness of the vaccine is short, the booster dose should be administered quickly. In that case, the government should intensify its effort to procure the vaccine as per the target in the shortest possible time. And it seems there is no alternative to achieve the capability of producing vaccines in the country for the long term solution to this problem.