The government has suspended the first dosing of the coronavirus vaccine from Apr 26 as the resupply of the drug is uncertain.
The Directorate General of Health Services announced the suspension on Sunday in a letter signed by Dr Shamsul Haque, a director of the state agency, reports bdnews24.com.
The order will remain effective until further notice.
Those who have received the first dose of the vaccine are likely to get the second dose on schedule.
At the current rate of use, the government’s stock of COVID-19 vaccine doses could run out within two weeks.
The current stock could be administered until the first week of May. Bangladesh has received 10.2 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, including about 3.2 million doses as gift in two phases from India. The vaccination drive began in Bangladesh on Feb 7.
According to the DGHS, 7.75 million doses have been used up as of Apr 22, which means Bangladesh is left with only 2.45 million vials.
Bangladesh signed an agreement with the Serum Institute of India to purchase 30 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca in November. According to that deal, Beximco Pharmaceuticals is responsible for procuring the doses.
As per the contract, Bangladesh was likely to receive 5 million vaccine doses a month with 30 million doses in total in six months. But it received only 2 million doses in February, while India put a temporary hold on all major exports of the AstraZeneca coronavirus shot made by Serum to meet domestic demand as infections began to rise in the second half of March.
