Thursday, April 25, 2024
Health and Family Welfare Ministry has decided to reconstitute Bangladesh Working Group on Vaccine Management after 19 years to monitor and manage the process of acquiring Covid-19 vaccine, an official of Health and Family Welfare ministry said.
The official also said the working group will advise the government to make specific decisions about the purchase of costly Covid-19 vaccine from China, Russia and Oxford University.
The working group will also assess and inform the government on the cost of the vaccine and how much money will be needed for the purchase of the costly vaccine, the official added.
The Bangladesh Working Group on Vaccine Management or Bangladesh Working Group on GAVI (Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation) was formed in 2001 for eligible countries to strengthen routine immunization services.
In order to facilitate the preparation for the collection of Covid-19 vaccine, the Working Group needs to be fully constituted in order to hold a quick meeting.
An additional secretary of (Public Health), Health Services Division of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare will be the convenor of the Working Group.
Health Minister Zahid Maleque said the Working Group will also include experts in vaccinology.
The Working Group will include fifteen agencies including finance division, LGD, WHO, UNICEF, World Bank, USAID, DFID and ICDDRB.
The terms of reference of the Working Group include the development of a national policy framework for introducing new vaccines in Bangladesh.
The group will also promote common agreement on program objectives and strategies. It also identifies national and International program resources.
The objective of the working group is to review and endorse the management for Covid-19 vaccine and any new vaccine.
It will also review the financial plan for Covid-19 vaccine and assess the current funding source available for operational cost and additional funds required for the future.
The Working Group will also review additional funds required for the introduction of any new vaccine and it will also identify national and international program resources of the new vaccine.
It will also support regular monitoring and periodic in-depth assessment of vaccines.
Additionally, GAVI is a public-private global health partnership with the goal of increasing access to immunisation in poor countries.
GAVI brings together developing country and donor governments, the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the World Bank, the vaccine industry in both industrialised and developing countries, research and technical agencies, civil society, and private philanthropists.
GAVI has observer status at the World Health Assembly.
Meanwhile, the global COVAX plan, co-led by GAVI, the WHO and the CEPI (Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations), aims to deliver two billion doses of effective, approved Covid-19 vaccines by the end of 2021.
The vaccine allocation plan will help buy and fairly distribute the shots. It now has a provisional agreement with Japan, Germany, Norway and 70 other nations to procure Covid-19 vaccines through the facility for their populations.
COVAX currently has nine Covid-19 vaccine candidates in its portfolio, employing a range of different technologies and scientific approaches.
Many countries will pay for the vaccines from their public budgets and partnerships with up to 90 poorer countries, including Bangladesh, supported through voluntary donations to GAVI's COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC).
WHO initially aims to vaccinate 20 percent of these countries’ populations once a vaccine is approved.
Officials at the Directorate General of Health Services said the countries with more than $4,000 per capita income will have to buy a vaccine while those with less than $4,000 per capita income will get specific amounts of doses for free initially.
As per the 20 percent quota, Bangladesh may get 34 million doses at the outset. Doctors and other frontline responders will be vaccinated first.
GAVI will decide later this month whether Bangladesh will get all the doses for free or make a partial payment.
Currently, the government pays 10 percent of the price of vaccines for different diseases while GAVI bears the rest of the costs.
It will take at least until June or July next year for Bangladesh to get the vaccine, depending on the success of the trials, through GAVI as per rules, Health Minister Zahid Maleque told The Business Post.
As part of the efforts to get the vaccine before that period, the government is communicating with different countries without prioritising one. It includes the Oxford University of UK, Russia, China and India, he said.
“We will collect the vaccine at the earliest possible time from wherever we can as,” he added.
The convener of Jannaswashthya Sangram Parishad Faiezul Hakim said the government must ensure Covid-19 vaccination for free no matter how much it costs to buy the vaccine.
The Working Group must include real experts to be, he added.
Finance division has set aside 8,000 crore taka to procure Covid-19 vaccine from the international market under a fast-track vaccine collection plan.
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