Norway, Sweden, Switzerland provide 1.2mn AstraZeneca shots to Bangladesh
Norway, Sweden and Switzerland have donated over 1.2 million Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines to Bangladesh under the global Covax facility.
Swedish Ambassador to Bangladesh Alexandra Berg von Linde, Norwegian Ambassador Espen Rikter-Svendsen, and Swiss Ambassador Nathalie Chuard symbolically handed over the donations to the government at a ceremony at the Padma State Guest House in the capital today.
Health Services Division Secretary Lokman Hossian Miah received the vaccines. Foreign Ministry Secretary (West) Shabbir Ahmad Chowdhury and other senior government officials were present.
Of the vaccines, Sweden provided 535,200 doses while Switzerland 446,000 doses and Norway 237,600.
In their joint statement, the three ambassadors highlighted the importance of an effective multilateral response to the global pandemic and reiterated their countries' commitment to the rapid and equal global access to safe and effective Covid-19 vaccines.
Living up to their global engagement, they have each pledged financial support to the multilateral "Access to Covid-19 Tools Accelerator" (ACT-A) initiative and have donated vaccines to its Covax facility.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, they have also bilaterally contributed to various frontline initiatives across Bangladesh, reaching the most vulnerable and remote communities.
The ambassadors also thanked Unicef for organizing the shipment and handover of the vaccines to the Bangladesh government.
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