Chinese engineers and technicians working in mega projects in Bangladesh got their first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine on Saturday.
Moreover, about 1,000 students from Bangladesh's four leading medical colleges -- Dhaka Medical College, Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College, Sir Salimullah Medical College, and Mugda Medical College -- have taken their first shot of the Covid vaccine produced by China's Sinopharm, reports UNB citing the Chinese Embassy in Dhaka.
China handed over 500,000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine to Bangladesh as a special gift on May 12. Beijing has said that it will send another 600,000 doses of the vaccine to Dhaka.
The Directorate General of Drug Administration (DGDA) on April 29 approved Sinopharm, as the third vaccine, for emergency use in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh started inoculating the vaccine among medical college students on May 25.
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China sent the vaccine to Bangladesh at a time when the latter's vaccine stock is running short and the country is keeping its efforts on globally to get access to enough inoculation.
The vaccine supply fell short in late March after the Serum Institute of India (SII) suspended the export of its Covishield vaccine, when Bangladesh was scheduled to get its third consignment, to tackle the record-breaking Covid-19 cases and deaths in India.
Bangladesh was supposed to get 30 million vaccines from SII in six installments within six months via Beximco Pharmaceuticals.
However, the country received only seven million vaccines in two installments. Besides, India has gifted Bangladesh with 3.3 million vaccines.
As the SII could not be able to provide the doses of vaccine they promised, a good number of people are waiting for their second jabs.
Meanwhile, on Thursday, the Cabinet Committee on Public Purchase approved the Health and Family Welfare Ministry's proposal to procure a total of 15 million Sinopharm vaccine shots.
As per the approval, the Health Services Division of the ministry will procure the shots in the next three months — June, July and August.
