Bangladesh to suspend first dosing of Moderna COVID vaccine, continue Sinopharm

The government has decided to stop administering the first doses of US vaccine produced by Moderna due to low supply but will continue giving out Chinese vaccines by Sinopharm to the masses.

The Directorate General of Health Services on Tuesday instructed the centres to suspend administering Moderna vaccine shots from Aug 12.

It also asked authorities to swiftly finish giving the first allocated doses of the Moderna vaccine, and begin rolling out the second doses on Aug 14.

The second doses of vaccine will soon be sent to the vaccination centres across the country as per the requirement, the DGHS said in a notice.  

Bangladesh received the Moderna doses under the international vaccine supply platform COVAX. A total of 5.5 million doses have so far arrived from the US.

Bangladesh is currently carrying out its mass vaccination drive using Moderna and Sinopharm vaccines.

Bangladesh has already received seven million doses of Sinopharm vaccine from the government’s agreement for 75 million shots from China, who sent another 1.1 million doses as a goodwill gesture.

Another 1.7 million doses of Sinopharm vaccine will arrive in Bangladesh on Tuesday night through COVAX.

The government also received 100,620 Pfizer doses under COVAX, co-led by the World Health Organization.

Bangladesh started its mass vaccination campaign in February, using the vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and Anglo-Swedish company AstraZeneca, bought under an agreement with the Serum Institute of India.

But the agreement for the doses fell through after the pandemic situation in India worsened dramatically, forcing the country to put a halt on vaccine exports.