Sinopharm vaccine on way to Bangladesh as gift from China

Sinopharm has finished packing 500,000 doses of its COVID-19 vaccine and the shots are on way to Bangladesh as a gift from China.

The Chinese Embassy in Dhaka posted photos of a cold-chain container carrying the doses to Beijing Capital International Airport on Monday evening.

“#Sinopharm vaccines are on the way to #Bangladesh!

The company just finished packing for the 500 thousand doses of gifted vaccines, which are heading to Beijing Capital International Airport in a cold-chain container truck now.

Counting down for the arrival!” the embassy wrote.

 

Earlier, Ambassador Li Jiming said Bangladesh will have to wait for some time to get the first commercial supply of vaccines from China.

“As per the first feedback I got from my colleagues in Beijing, the line is too long and you better not expect [commercial supply] before December,” he said.

“I said no, I need [it] as quickly as possible. Then I think I can make [it] much earlier than December but unfortunately not within the first half of this year,” Jiming said in an interaction with the Diplomatic Correspondents Association, Bangladesh, or DCAB, on Monday.

The Bangladesh government gave the emergency-use authorisation to  a vaccine from China's state-owned drugmaker Sinopharm “only a week ago”.

“So obviously, there is a long queue for the supply in the international market. Right now, Bangladesh is not very close to the first line,” he said.

The government-to-government cooperation is on the table and China is quite positive to provide supply to the market of Bangladesh, Jiming said.

On Apr 29, Bangladesh approved the emergency use of Sinopharm’s COVID-19 vaccine amid a supply squeeze.