The Bangladesh government will spend around $6.25 for each dose of the vaccine acquired from the Serum Institute of India.
The amount includes the cost of the dose, transportation to the fixed storage of the government, local transportation and other expenses related to administering the vaccine.
Minister of Health and Family Welfare Zahid Maleque disclosed the matter while addressing journalists after attending an information dissemination program organized by the Disease Control Unit of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) in Dhaka on Sunday.
Regarding the expenses, the minister said: “We have to spend $5 to bring each dose of the vaccine to the country. Local expenses are estimated at $1 or $1.25, for transporting the dose and administering it. It might take $6.25 for each dose.”
The vaccine will arrive in six installments – 5 million doses every month. As two doses are needed for each person, the government will be able to vaccinate 2.5 million people each month, he added.
According to the ministry, the doses will be provided to the people for free, but the government will be spending over Tk500 per dose.
Earlier, the health minister said they have completed a contract with Serum Institute of India, who are producing the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine. Bangladesh has initially ordered 30 million doses.
“We will receive the vaccine in January, if the World Health Organization (WHO) approves the vaccine this month or in early January,” he said, adding that there is also the issue of approval from DGHS.
According to reports on an Indian national online news portal, SII CEO Adar Poonawalla at the Economic Times Global Business Summit on Sunday said the Covid-19 vaccination drives in India may begin in January 2021 as the company is hoping to get emergency-use authorization by the end of December.
Also read - Bangladesh clears way for direct procurement of Covid-19 vaccine
Bangladesh earlier signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Serum Institute of India on November 5.
“We have started taking all the preparation, including for storage of the vaccine, transport, and providing training to the required people, Zahid Maleque said.
When asked about measures if any side-effects emerged, he said no side-effects were observed during the trial and that is one of the reasons the vaccine was bought.
“The food habits, environment, and culture of these two countries [Bangladesh and India] are near similar, so it is a good option,” the minister explained.
The minister also said they would ask for more vaccines from the Serum Institute of India. “If they cannot provide the required number of vaccines, the government will acquire them from other companies.”
Information dissemination without documents
It has long been alleged that DGHS do not maintain a proper information dissemination approach.
The allegations recently gained some traction as the Communicable Disease Control unit of DGHS, who organized the information dissemination program, launched the latest version of the Covid-19 Management Guidelines and Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) without properly passing on related documents.
Some reporters got hold of the documents, while some others did not get them all. Some only received the documents after insisting several times.
An official at the reception desk confirmed that Deputy Project Manager (DPM - ARC and Hepa) Anindo Rahman was the person responsible for dissemination of the documents.
When contacted, the deputy project manager said journalists are not supposed to get the documents. “If anyone got hold of them, we have to check how the journalists got them.”