Bangladesh to buy another 60m doses of China’s Sinopharm vaccine

The Bangladesh government plans to purchase another 60 million doses of Sinopharm vaccine from China to expedite the coronavirus inoculation campaign.

The Cabinet Committee on Public Purchase approved a proposal at a meeting on Wednesday, Shamsul Arefin, additional secretary of the Cabinet Division, told reporters in Dhaka on Wednesday.

Arefin did not disclose prices of the vaccine citing a non-disclosure agreement with Sinopharm.

“The vaccines will arrive in Bangladesh by November,” he said.

In addition to the vaccine purchase proposal, several other measures were approved during the meeting.

The National Curriculum and Textbook Board, or NCTB, is taking a new initiative to conduct online or digital teaching activities for students to fill the education gap due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

A policy has been approved to spend over Tk 174.33 million on digital classroom content from the government-run Computer Council.

Students have fallen behind on their education due to the pandemic, the additional secretary said. These contents will help support them in their studies.

The emergency purchase of PCR test kits, antigen test kits, VTM with swab stick, PCR lab consumables, CPAP and BiPAP machines and other equipment to help COVID-19 patients amid the pandemic has also been approved.