Dhaka:
Bangladesh on Wednesday received 500,000 doses of China’s Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine as a present to continue its vaccination drive, which was halted due to shortage of India-made Astrazeneca jabs.
Chinese Ambassador Li Jiming handed more than the vaccines to Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen and Health Minister Zahid Maleque at State Guest House Padma, hours right after a Bangladesh aircraft landed in Dhaka carrying the vaccines from China.
Momen stated that Bangladesh seeks to procure 40 to 50 million doses of the Chinese vaccine on a industrial basis.
He proposed co-production arrangement of the Chinese vaccine in Bangladesh, saying it could make a “win-win” scenario for each the nations.
“We have the capacity to produce the vaccine and we can do it with their (Chinese) help . . . if they agree we can go for co-production,” he stated.
Maleque stated that his workplace has sent a letter of interest to China to acquire the vaccine on a industrial basis.
Chinese envoy Li stated the present was the manifestation of China-Bangladesh anti-pandemic cooperation, which once more shows that “our people are in the same boat and we will stand with each other till the end of this battle”.
The improvement came right after the World Health Organization (WHO) listed the Sinopharm vaccine for emergency use, providing green light for this vaccine to be rolled out globally.
According to Momen, Bangladesh was initially reluctant to obtain the Chinese vaccine till it got the WHO nod but the second wave of the pandemic forced the country’s overall health authorities earlier this month to approve the Chinese jabs alongside Russia’s Sputnik vaccine.
The Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) stated they would begin the procedure of administering the Sinopharm vaccine amongst these who got registered for the very first dose.
Bangladesh launched the nationwide vaccination campaign on February 7 with the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine manufactured by Serum Institute of India.
India offered 3.2 million doses of the vaccine to Bangladesh as a present.
However, the registration for the vaccination was halted on May 5 in view of shortage of the vaccine.
Bangladesh bought 30 million doses of the vaccine and beneath an agreement received seven million doses in two consignments till February, although the third consignment, which was anticipated in March, is however to arrive, forcing the nation to look for other options to vaccinate its population.
The Chinese vaccines arrived in the nation as the ties among the two nations apparently witnessed a sudden strain with China warning Bangladesh against joining the Quad alliance, saying that Dhaka”s participation in the anti-Beijing “club” would outcome in “substantial damage” to bilateral relations.
The Chinese envoy made the remarks which promptly drew a sharp response from Bangladesh’s foreign minister who known as it “very unfortunate” and “aggressive”, adding that he never ever heard such comments from any Chinese diplomat just before.
Initiated in 2007, the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, Quad for brief, is an informal grouping of the US, India, Australia and Japan.