The health authorities in Bangladesh have approved the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use in the country.
The Directorate General of Drug Administration (DGDA) gave the approval on Tuesday, according to a press release.
This is the eighth vaccine to receive emergency use authorization from the DGDA.
The vaccine can be administered among people aged 18 and above. The two-dose vaccine will be inoculated within four weeks of the first jab.
The vaccine's preservation temperature ranges between 15°C and 25°C.
The approval comes as the US began shipping 2.5 million doses of Moderna vaccine to Bangladesh on Tuesday, a White House official told AFP.
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Bangladesh started a pilot vaccination program on January 27 and the nationwide program on February 7 by administering Covishield, the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII).
However, on April 25, the government suspended administering the first dose of the vaccine, just a day after India stopped exporting the vaccine due to the record-breaking surge in cases and deaths there.
As the SII could not provide the doses of vaccine, a good number of people around Bangladesh are still waiting for their second jabs.
Also Read - US sending Bangladesh 2.5 million Covid vaccine doses
However, on June 1, Bangladesh received the first consignment of 100,620 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine, under the Covax scheme run by WHO and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.
Meanwhile, China also sent 1.1 million doses of the Sinopharm vaccine to Bangladesh as a special gift in two shipments.
The country is also negotiating with Russia to buy its Sputnik V vaccine.
