No reason to blame anyone for delay in Chinese vaccine's emergency use approval: Momen
Extending thanks to the Chinese government for providing five lakh doses of Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine as gift, Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen today said Bangladesh wants a larger amount of vaccine doses from China.
"We're thankful to China. They've been very cooperative. We look forward to many more vaccine doses from China," he said.
Dr Momen said China has the capacity and competency to produce vaccines on a large scale and he has no doubt that Bangladesh will get more vaccine doses.
The Foreign Minister was addressing the vaccine handover ceremony alongside Health Minister Zahid Maleque and Chinese Ambassador to Bangladesh Li Jiming.
Dr Momen recalled a virtual meeting of six foreign ministers led by the Chinese foreign minister and mentioned that they agreed on "South Asia-China Emergency Vaccine Storage Facility".
He said if any country faces any shortage of vaccine the countries will come forward to help each other.
Dr Momen explained the process that Bangladesh follows, and acknowledged that Bangladesh had some reservation at the beginning because the Chinese vaccine was not approved by the World Health Organization at that time.
"Unless approved by the WHO, we're hesitant to use those vaccines. We're very concerned about the health and wellbeing of our people," said the Foreign Minister.
He said there is no reason to blame anyone for the delay in giving approval for emergency use of Chinese vaccine shots.
Dr Momen said China has become a great friend of Bangladesh over the past years. "We look forward to having better days."
Ambassador Li said, "Today is a very special day. It's International Nurses Day. We picked the day to hand over the gift. It's a real action taken by the Chinese government to honour the commitment that vaccines will be made a global public good."
Although facing difficulties of huge domestic demand and a tight supply of the international market, China gave priority to ensuring that the vaccine doses arrive in Bangladesh as soon as possible, and has now successfully made it a special gift on the occasion of Eid Festival to the government and people of Bangladesh, which demonstrates the profound traditional friendship between the two countries, said the Chinese Embassy in Dhaka.
China has donated and is donating vaccines to 80 developing countries with urgent needs, and has provided support under COVAX for the emergency use of vaccines in developing countries.
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