Bangladesh has officially expressed interest in procuring the vaccines developed by the US-based Pfizer and German company BioNTech, officials concerned said on Monday.
Bangladesh’s willingness was conveyed through an official reply to the COVAX, the WHO’s pillar of access to Covid-19 vaccines, which asked if Bangladesh wanted to secure the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines.
“We’ve already sent the letter to the COVAX authorities asking them to send the vaccines to Bangladesh,” ABM Khurshid Alam, Director General at the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), told The Financial Express.
However, certain confusions arose following reports that India's Serum Institute might not export shortly the Oxford vaccines as per the deal with Bangladesh’s Beximco.
The health official mentioned that necessary preparations to store and distribute the vaccines have already been taken.
“We want the vaccine. [We sent the letter] With the description of our demand and how we want to conduct the inoculation,” he said about the communication with the COVAX.
Meanwhile, the health minister said the Oxford vaccines will arrive in the country on January 25-26.
