Bangladesh set to sign vaccine deal with Russia

Bangladesh is set to sign an agreement with Russia for procuring Sputnik V Covid vaccine, health minister Zahid Maleque said on Tuesday.

The two governments are at the final stage of signing an agreement so that Bangladesh can get Sputnik-V vaccines, he said on Tuesday without providing any detail of the deal.

The government will now work on completing internal procurement procedures, he said.

The deal will be signed if Russia confirms simultaneous delivery of the first and the second doses of Sputnik V vaccine, government officials said.  

Bangladesh was in negotiations with Russia for a government-to-government deal to import 60 lakh Sputnik V vaccines.

The local authorities will conduct a trial-run of Sputnik V vaccine after getting the first consignment at the earliest.

Sputnik V is registered in more than 65 countries so far for emergency use, according to Sputnik Vaccine website.

In an effort to diversify the sources of vaccine procurement, the Bangladesh government has so far approved seven vaccines — Indian Covishield, also known as Oxford-AstraZeneca, Moderna of the US, Sinopharm and Coronavac/ Sinovac of China, Sputnik V of Russia and Comirnaty of Pfizer of the US and Janssen of Belgium.

Unlike other available Covid vaccines, the first dose of Sputnik V vaccine is not similar to the second dose of the vaccine, according an official aware of the matter.

Getting a substantive consignment of Sputnik V vaccine would be an important move as the government is set to widen Covid vaccination with lowering the age limit for vaccination to 35 years from 40 years and bringing in foreign-bound workers, residential university students, farmers and industrial workers, members of the law enforcement agencies, health services workers, medical and nursing students on a priority basis, health ministry officials said. 

The Directorate General of Health Services on Monday suggested that Bangladeshi students of foreign institutions and patients willing to take treatment abroad should contact the foreign ministry for confirming their eligibility for vaccination on a priority basis.   

About 73 lakh people completed registration for taking vaccine, while over 58, 20,015 people received the first dose and 42,92,600 people received the second dose till July 6 from the beginning of inoculation on January 27 this year.

The government is likely to resume the scope for fresh registration for resuming administering the first dose across the country soon after the completion of the delivery of recently procured Moderna vaccines to all city corporation areas and Sinopharm vaccines to district level at the earliest, health ministry officials said.

Administering the first dose of Covid vaccine was stopped on April 26 amid a shortage of Covishield vaccine procured from the Serum Institute of India.

An expert body of the health ministry is assessing the scopes of the use of mixed-vaccines in inoculation, but they are yet to come up with a suggestion, DGHS director general said earlier. 

The government is also encouraging the private sector for co-productions of Covid vaccines approved by World Health Organisation and the domestic authorities.

Chinese vaccine companies ‘are working with Bangladesh partners for future vaccine co-productions in Bangladesh,’ Chinese embassy deputy chief of mission Hualong Yan said on Tuesday.

News Courtesy:

https://www.newagebd.net/article/143017/bangladesh-set-to-sign-vaccine-deal-with-russia