Bangladesh is going to receive another 14 million Pfizer vaccines from the USA.
Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen, now in Paris, informed the foreign ministry about the development following a high level international meeting on Covid, a spokesperson of the ministry said on Thursday
The US Secretary of State Antony Blinken moderated a high-level ministerial meeting on ‘Covid-19 and beyond’ which was participated by Bangladesh foreign minister and 25 other foreign ministers from different countries.
In the meeting Bangladesh demanded the vaccines be made public good affordable to all countries, and assist and encourage pharmaceutical companies like that of Bangladesh to produce it locally, the spokesperson said quoting the foreign minister.
Bangladesh already received 15 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines from the US government under the Covax facility.
The latest shipment was made on October 26, when Bangladesh received 3.5 million doses of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine.
Earlier this year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorised the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use among children of 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.
During the delivery of the previous consignment of Pfizer vaccine, US Ambassador to Dhaka Earl Miller said the US 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,” he added.
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.
However Dr Momen told the meeting that Bangladesh had so far administered 78 million doses including 46 million first dose and 32 million second dose.
Bangladesh is in need of more doses to vaccinate at least 80 per cent of its 165 million people.
