‘I feel perfect’, EU Ambassador Teerink says after taking COVID vaccine

Foreign diplomats stationed in Dhaka have taken satisfaction in the COVID-19 immunisation drive of Bangladesh after being vaccinated.

The government launched the initiative to vaccinate all foreign diplomats and foreign staff members of international organisations at Sheikh Russel Gastro Liver Institute and Hospital in Dhaka’s Mohakhali on Wednesday.

“I feel perfect, I have to say. Great, great! And it wasn’t painful at all,” Ambassador and Head of Delegation of European Union Rensje Teerink said after being administered the COVISHIELD vaccine.

Around 30 foreign diplomats and their spouses were inoculated on the first day of the campaign, which began four days after the government started the mass immunisation drive.

The EU ambassador thanked the government for taking the initiative to vaccinate the foreign diplomats.

“We can give a good example of getting vaccinated and if it can bring confidence to people. I think that the whole point of this exercise is to show that even as foreigners, we are confident to be vaccinated here,” she said.

“I don’t need to travel to Europe, I can do it here. So I have done this today. I want again to thank from my heart that it has taken place today.”

Teerink urged all Bangladeshis to take vaccines as soon as possible, noting that it is the only way to get back to normal life and make full-fledged economic recovery.

“We are talking, especially thinking, about the children who are not able to go to school, old people who are being confined to their homes to avoid being infected,” she said.

“So this vaccine is helping to bring an end to this. I think we should all do the responsible thing and get vaccinated, to also protect the people around us and to hopefully work together towards the end of this pandemic.”

Archbishop George Kocherry, ambassador of the Vatican City and dean of the diplomatic corps in Dhaka, also thanked the foreign ministry for organising the vaccination campaign for diplomats.

“I appreciate this initiation because the COVID-19 pandemic is seriously affecting the country, various aspects of this country,” he said after taking his jab.

He encouraged all the citizens of Bangladesh to get the jab “so that this pandemic can be reduced in this country and the country can progress”.

“And I would suggest - please help and support the initiative of the government,” the ambassador of the Vatican City added.

Indian High Commissioner Vikram Doraiswami said the Bangladeshi health workers “professionally” administered the dose to him and it was “painless”.

“This is the most appropriate vaccine for India and Bangladesh,” he said about COVISHIELD, developed and licensed by the UK’s Oxford University and Anglo-Swedish firm AstraZeneca, and manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, world's largest vaccine maker.

Doraiswami emphasised cooperation between neighbouring countries to tackle the pandemic.

“This is the sign of the quality of our partnership. And also one simple reality that there is no immunisation in either of our countries without each other being immunised. So we must go together,” he said.

“India and Bangladesh and our other neighbours must vaccinate together, and must make every effort to fight this disease together. So we're working together with Bangladesh in providing the vaccine intended as part of the effort showing how close our friendship is.”

Doraiswami appreciated Bangladesh’s “quick” mass vaccination campaign launch and urged people to get immunised as early as possible.

“Your government is doing a terrific job in vaccinating people, already within three days over 100,000 people have been vaccinated and this is the only way forward. We must be confident; we must be courageous in fighting this disease and getting back to our normal life,” the high commissioner said.

His wife Sangeeta Doraiswami, Deputy High Commissioner Bishwadip Dey and several other officials from the high commission also got vaccinated at the event.

Ambassador of Germany Peter Fahrenholtz, Ambassador of Turkey Mustafa Osman Turan, Ambassador of France Jean-Marin SCHUH and his wife Marie-Caroline Schuh-Senlis, High Commissioner of Australia Jeremy Bruer, and Ambassador of Italy Enrico Nunziata were among those who took the jab on the first day.

State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam and Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen were administered the vaccine at the event.