A shot in the arm: Bangladesh vaccine crisis eases with arrival of 4.5m doses

Bangladesh has received 4.5 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine in four shipments, all of which arrived in the course of a few hours. The boost in supply is expected to ease the vaccine crisis in the country, bolstering its inoculation efforts amid a spike in coronavirus cases and deaths.

The four flights arrived at Dhaka’s Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport late on Friday night and Saturday morning.

An Emirates Airlines flight brought 1.25 million doses in the first consignment of the Moderna vaccine around 11:15 pm on Friday, said Maidul Islam, a spokesman for the health ministry.

A shipment of 1 million Sinopharm doses from China arrived about an hour and a half later, followed by two more flights at 5:30 am and 8:45 am Saturday, according to airport authorities.

The Sinopharm shipment is part of the 15 million doses Bangladesh has purchased from China, while the Moderna vaccine comes to Bangladesh through international vaccination platform COVAX.

Health Minister Zahid Maleque, Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen and senior officials went to the airport to receive the doses.

“Our mass vaccination drive stopped after the strong launch because we did not get expected doses. I hope we won’t face another supply crunch. We are getting vaccines from other countries and this will continue,” he said.

He hopes Bangladesh will get 100 million doses by December to inoculate 50 million people.

The Moderna vaccine, approved by Bangladesh on Jun 29, will be the fourth to be administered against the coronavirus in the country.

These 2.5 million vaccine doses are part of US government’s recent allocation of 25 million vaccine doses for countries in Asia, the US Embassy in Dhaka said.

“This is a gift, at no cost, from the American people,” said Earl R Miller, US ambassador to Dhaka. “We share these vaccines with the singular objective of saving lives.  Because it is the right thing to do.  It is what Americans do in times of need.  When we have the capacity, we have the will, and we step up and we deliver."

The ambassador said the US was the largest aid donor to Bangladesh’s COVID-19 response, contributing $84 billion to the country’s efforts to combat the pandemic.

“This assistance includes the delivery of ventilators, oxygen cylinders, 1200 pulse oximeters, over two million pieces of personal protective equipment, five million surgical masks, and 52,000 pairs of protective goggles to protect thousands of frontline healthcare workers in Bangladesh.”

“And to be clear:  the vaccine donations arriving tonight and in a few hours are only the beginning.  The US understands the urgency of getting as many safe and effective vaccines to Bangladesh as quickly as possible.”

US President Joe Biden had previously announced that the US would donate 80 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to the world. Another 500 million of the Pfizer vaccine are to be distributed through COVAX.

On May 31 COVAX had sent 100,620 doses of the Pfizer vaccine to Bangladesh.

The health minister and foreign minister were also at the airport for the arrival of the Sinopharm vaccine.

Bangladesh will receive two million doses of the Chinese vaccine this month, the health minister said.

“We hope next month we will get even more – maybe around 3.5 to 4 million,” he said.

China had previously sent 500,000 doses of the vaccine to Bangladesh on May 12 and another 600,000 doses on Jun 13 as gifts. But the latest shipment is part of Bangladesh’s agreement with China for the provision of the shots.

Foreign Minister Momen had said on May 25 that 15 million doses of the vaccine will be bought from China. On May 27, Bangladesh approved a proposal to buy the shots at $10 per dose.

The arrival of these vaccines will allow Bangladesh to expand its vaccination drive to the general populace once more, after a break of over two months.

According to the Directorate General of Health Services, the Sinopharm vaccine has been administered at 40 centres in Dhaka and the Pfizer vaccine at seven.

Bangladesh started its mass vaccination campaign in February, using the COVISHIELD vaccine developed by the UK's University of Oxford and Anglo-Swedish company AstraZeneca. But the programme was subsequently halted after Indian froze vaccine exports to tackle its own crisis of doses.

The inoculation drive later resumed after the country received consignments of Sinopharm and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines.