COVID vaccine will arrive in Bangladesh by Jan 25: official

Bangladesh will receive the coronavirus vaccine developed by Oxford University and drugmaker AstraZeneca by Jan 25 from the Serum Institute of India, authorities have said.

Preparations are underway to begin the vaccination process at the field level in the first week of February, according to Director General of Health Services ABM Khurshid Alam.

The online registration for vaccination will kick off on Jan 26.

“Beximco Pharma told us that the vaccine will arrive in Bangladesh between Jan 21-25. It will be stored in Beximco’s warehouse,” Alam said in a media briefing on Monday.

The drugs will then be sent to different districts of the country following a list by the health directorate, he added.

The second dose of the vaccine would be administered two months after the first shot, as per new instructions from Oxford-AstraZeneca.

That means five million people will be inoculated against COVID-19 in the first phase, according to the health directorate.

“Earlier we were told that the second dose will be given 28 days apart. Taking that into account, we planned to vaccinate 2.5 million people. But we changed the plan after getting the new rule,” said Alam.

The health directorate is expected to receive the vaccine doses on Jan 27, according to Dr Shamsul Haque, a director of DGHS.

The authorities will subsequently begin vaccinating frontline volunteers and physicians of several medical college hospitals.

"Since a vaccine is coming to Bangladesh for the first time, we will inoculate a small number of people in a few areas. It could be a medical college or a hospital. If anyone wants to be vaccinated there as a vaccinator or volunteer, they will be vaccinated," said Shamsul.

"We plan to observe the recipients for up to seven days after the vaccination. Then we will start working in the field. The vaccination will begin at the national level in the first week of February.”

Bangladesh has an agreement with Serum Institute of India to bring 30 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, with Beximco Pharmaceuticals being the sole distributor of the vaccine in the country. According to the contract, Serum Institute will send five million doses a month.

The vaccine developed by Oxford will be administered following a two-dose regime and therefore, the health directorate had initially planned to use half of the 5 million vaccine shots in the first while preserving the rest.

However, the plan has changed in light of new information from Oxford-AstraZeneca, which says the second dose can be administered two months after the first one, said Alam. As a result, five million people will be inoculated within the first month of the vaccines' arrival.

"According to the information we have received from Beximco and Oxford-AstraZeneca, we will have two months after the first dose to give the second dose. As such, we modified our original plan."

We will administer 5 million vaccine shots now as we'll have eight weeks to provide the second dose. In the meantime, more consignments will arrive and in this way, we will be able to vaccinate more people quickly," Alam added

Asked about any potential side effects of the vaccine, Shamsul Haque highlighted the findings from the clinical trials of the drug.

He said some patients reportedly experienced dizziness, headache, mild fever, nausea and pain where the vaccine was administered. However, such side effects have been observed in 2-3 percent of people who received vaccine shots.