Bangladesh to buy 6 crore more Sinopharm doses from China
Bangladesh government is going to procure six crore more doses of Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine from China.
The Cabinet Committee on Purchase approved the proposal at a meeting today, with Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal in the chair.
Bangladesh may receive the vaccines in November, Additional Secretary of Cabinet Division Shamsul Arefin told reporters after the meeting.
The additional secretary refused to disclose the price of the vaccine, saying that Bangladesh has signed a "non-disclosure agreement" with the vaccine producer.
It will not be more than the cost of the vaccines that Bangladesh procured earlier, the finance minister said when asked.
The minister said that total 13.82 crore people will have to be vaccinated, for which, 27.64 crore doses are needed. "So far, we bought 2.55 crore doses," he said.
Earlier, the government purchased 1.5 crore doses of Sinopharm vaccines from China. Of which, Bangladesh has already received 70 lakh doses. Also, Bangladesh received 11 lakh doses of Sinopharm vaccine as gift.
Health Minister Zahid Maleque recently told reporters that 54 lakh vaccine doses will arrive in the country by August 15. Of the doses, 30 lakh will be from COVAX.
A consignment of 17 lakh Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine doses, under the COVAX facility, reached Dhaka last evening from China.
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