Bangladesh plans to vaccinate 80% of the population with at least the first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine by February next year, although more vaccines will need to be arranged to accomplish the task.
Health Minister Zahid Maleque on Monday morning said that the government would ensure regular supply of Covid vaccines.
“We are hoping to vaccinate 80% of the total population [with at least one dose] by next February. But there are unlikely to be no more special mass inoculation drives to bring more people under the vaccination program,” he added.
Another inoculation drive might be held for those who received their first dose in the first drive.
Till Monday, Bangladesh had over 7.89 million doses of vaccines in stock and needed another 10.6 million doses to provide second doses to those who have already taken the first dose.
Bangladesh is expecting around 11.6 million doses of vaccines – Pfizer, Oxford-AstraZeneca and Sinophram vaccines – under the Covax facility as well as through purchase processes.
A total 35,716,384 people had completed their vaccine registration using NIDs or passports till Monday evening, while 16,948,622 people had gotten at least one dose.
Over 18.7 million people were still waiting to receive their first dose till Monday evening.
Bangladesh has so far received 31.7 million doses of vaccine. Among them, 15 million doses were purchased, including seven million doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine from Serum institute of India and eight million doses of Sinopharm vaccine from China.
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Meanwhile, Bangladesh has received around 11.38 million doses of vaccines as gifts under the Covax facility from USA, China and Japan, and 5.4 million doses of vaccines as gifts from India and China.
Oxford-AstraZeneca
The government has received around 2.4 million doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine from Japan as a gift, of which they have administered over 800,000 doses.
At present the country has a stock of over 1.4 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.
Among the 1.4 million doses of vaccines, over 613,000 doses of the vaccine would be used as second doses for those who are waiting, and the other 865,000 doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine would be available for further vaccination.
Bangladesh is expecting over 634,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine on August 28 as part of the Japan government’s commitment to provide over three million doses to Bangladesh.
Pfizer, Moderna
The country has received some 5.5 million doses of Moderna vaccine and among them 2,841,168 doses of the vaccine have been administered. As a result, the country has about 2.65 million doses of the vaccine in hand, all of it earmarked for second doses.
The United States provided 100,000 Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines under the Covax facility, over 90% (94,830) of were administered till Monday.
Health Minister Zahid Maleque recently six million doses of the Pfizer vaccine is expected from the US under the Covax facility.
Sinopharm
Bangladesh purchased eight million doses of Sinopharm vaccine from China, while they gifted another 2.1 million doses. Besides, the country received another 3.4 million doses of Sinopharm vaccine from China under the Covax facility, which means the country has a total of 13.5 million doses of the vaccine till now.
The country has administered over 9.7 million doses of Sinopharm vaccine, so far, including 8.5 million doses as first doses. Over 1.1 million people have received both doses.
The country needs around 7.4 million doses of the Sinopharm vaccine to administer second doses to those who are waiting after their first dose.
The country now has around 3.8 million doses of the Sinopharm vaccine in hand and they are expecting another five million doses this month.
Besides, the country has to ensure vaccines for those who got their first dose during the walk-in vaccination drive of Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) early this month.
Around three million additional Sinopharm vaccine doses will be required to vaccinate these people, according to the Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) unit of DGHS.
