Bangladesh could receive one million doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine from the WHO-backed Covax facility this month, and the Serum Institute of India (SII) could resume supplies from August, Health Minister Zahid Maleque said on Monday.
The country is in desperate need of vaccines as a jump in infections has filled up hospitals and depleted supplies of medical oxygen.
“We may receive one million doses from Covax this month,” the minister told reporters, without elaborating if they would be produced by the SII.
He said SII could resume direct supplies of Covishield, a licensed version of the AstraZeneca shot to Bangladesh from next month. Indian producers including SII, the main supplier to Covax, stopped all vaccine exports in the middle of April to meet local demand as infections shot up.
"We are told that they (SII) will start sending vaccine doses in August," Maleque said. "They haven't specified the number of doses, but assured us it won't be small."
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Though, an SII spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. SII said in May it hoped to restart exports only by the end of this year.
The government has a deal for 30 million Covishield doses with SII but has only received seven million, which it has used to fully immunise about 3% of Bangladesh’s 170 million people.
The country urgently needs 1.5 million doses to fully immunize other recipients of a first dose, and has sought help from the United States, Canada and others.
Bangladesh has also received two million of the 15 million doses of Sinopharm vaccine it has ordered, as well as 2.5 million doses of Moderna's vaccine and more than 100,000 of Pfizer's through Covax.
"It's critical that richer countries share more vaccines with Bangladesh in the coming days and weeks to help avoid the horrors caused by Covid-19 in India," said Sanjeev Kafely, Bangladesh head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
