The government on Thursday approved the emergency use of Sinopharm, a Chinese Covid-19 vaccine.
The approval was given at a meeting of the Directorate General of Drug Administration, said director general of DGDA Mahbubur Rahman.
On Tuesday, the government approved the emergency use of Sputnik V Vaccine of Russia.
Apparently considering its dwindling stock, the government suspended administering the first dose of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine from Apr 26.
The first dose of the covid vaccination has apparently been suspended amid uncertainty over the availability of vaccine doses from Serum Institute of India as per contract following rapid surge in the virus cases and deaths in neighbouring India.
Bangladesh signed an agreement with the Serum Institute of India Pvt Ltd for 30 million doses of the vaccine.
Bangladesh received 7 million doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine produced by Serum Institute of India through its contract. Bangladesh also received 3.3 million doses of vaccine as a bilateral partnership gift.
Although Foreign Minister AK Momen earlier assured people that there will be adequate doses of the vaccine but a record number of cases in India has made the delivery of the vaccine doses uncertain.
In mid-April, the pandemic suddenly turned India into a Covid vaccine importer from a mass exporter.
DG of the Directorate General of Health Services Abul Bashar Mohammad Khurshid Alam has recently said Bangladesh will get 21 lakh doses of Covid-19 vaccine by the first week of May.
“Most of these vaccine doses will be imported by Beximco Pharmaceuticals,” he told reporters.
Among the doses, one lakh are of COVAX while the Serum Institute will supply the rest, Khurshid Alam said.
