The U.S. government has donated another 3.5 million doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine to Bangladesh. With the latest shipment, the American people have now donated 15 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to Bangladesh, a spokesperson of the US Embassy in Dhaka said on Wednesday.
Earlier this year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorised the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use among children ages 12 to 17 years old.
Following a trial in Manikganj, the U.S.-donated Pfizer vaccines will enable the government of Bangladesh to roll-out vaccinations for young people in this age group.
“The United States is pleased to donate another 3.5 million Pfizer vaccines to Bangladesh. We have also provided specialised training to hundreds of Bangladeshi health workers to help them safely administer these Pfizer vaccines among children ages 12 and up. We hope this enables young people, especially students, to protect themselves from COVID-19 and safely resume their studies and social lives more fully,” said Ambassador Miller.
This delivery of Pfizer vaccines is part of the broader commitment by the United States to lead the global COVID-19 response by providing one billion doses of Pfizer vaccine around the world—free of charge—through 2022.
“In addition to vaccine donations, the United States continues to work closely with Bangladesh to support the national COVID-19 vaccination campaign and strengthen the government’s response to the pandemic,” the spokesperson said.
The United States has provided training for more than 6,000 service providers and healthcare professionals to help them administer vaccines safely and efficiently and protect the health of Bangladeshis.
The U.S. government has contributed over $121 million in COVID-19-related development and humanitarian assistance to Bangladesh through the U.S. Agency for International Development, the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Department of State, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“This assistance has saved lives and treated individuals infected with COVID-19, strengthened testing capacity and monitoring, enhanced case management and infection prevention and control practices, and improved the supply chain and logistics management systems. U.S. support also protects front-line workers and increases the public’s knowledge about COVID-19, including ways to protect themselves” he added.
mirmostafiz@yahoo.com