The first consignment of 1,06,000 doses of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine reached Dhaka on Monday under the global vaccine initiative Covax facility.
A regular flight of Emirates landed at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport at 11:10pm with the doses and Md Shamsul Haque, a line director at the Directorate General of Health Services, received them, Dr Nasrin Akhter, a medical officer at the airport's health centre, confirmed UNB.
In a press release on Tuesday, the USA welcomed the successful shipment of the vaccine doses.
“The Covid-19 pandemic underscores that no nation can act alone against a global pandemic. The United States, Bangladesh, and global partners are working closely together to combat this pandemic,” said Earl R Miller, US Ambassador to Bangladesh.
“We are committed to working shoulder to shoulder with the Government of Bangladesh to get through this unprecedented global health crisis and put systems in place so we are more prepared for and resilient in future crises,” the press release quoted him saying.
"The US has worked closely with Bangladesh to protect the health of Bangladeshis and strengthen the government’s response to Covid-19, contributing over $76 million to date in development and humanitarian assistance from USAID, the US Department of Defense (DOD), and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This assistance helped Bangladesh save lives and treat infected individuals; strengthen testing capacity and surveillance; enhance case management and infection prevention and control practices; improve supply chain and logistics management systems; increase public knowledge; train medical professionals; and ensure an effective roll-out of the vaccination campaign," the release reads.
Additional US Covid response assistance included supplying 100 state-of-the-art US manufactured ventilators; gas analysers to allow Bangladesh to produce its own ventilators; and tens of thousands of pieces of locally-produced personal protective equipment (PPE) for frontline workers across Bangladesh, it added.
Bangladesh on May 27 approved the emergency use of Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine in the country, the Directorate General of Drug Administration (DGDA) disclosed in a press release.
COVAX, the facility set up by the World Health Organization and several non-profits to deliver Covid-19 vaccines to developing nations, is working in partnership with Unicef, developed and developing country vaccine manufacturers, the World Bank, and others.
So far, four vaccines have received emergency use authorisation in Bangladesh: Oxford-AstraZeneca (Covishield), Sputnik-V, Sinopharm, and Pfizer-BioNTech.
