COVID-19
China proposes setting up int’l forum on vaccine cooperation
China has proposed setting up an international forum on vaccine cooperation for vaccine-developing and producing countries, companies and other stakeholders to explore ways of promoting fair and equitable distribution of vaccines around the world.
Chinese President Xi Jinping made the proposal at the Global Health Summit on Friday.
He said China will provide an additional US$3 billion in international aid over the next three years to support COVID-19 response and economic and social recovery in other developing countries.
Also read: Covid vaccine: China to send additional 6 lakh doses as gift
Having already supplied 300 million doses of vaccines to the world, President Xi said, China will provide still more doses to the best of its ability.
He mentioned that China supports its vaccine companies in transferring technologies to other developing countries and carrying out joint production with them.
Having announced support for waiving intellectual property rights on COVID-19 vaccines, China also supports the World Trade Organization and other international institutions in making an early decision on this matter, President Xi said.
Covid vaccine: China to send additional 6 lakh doses as gift
China is preparing a the second batch of 600,000 doses of its COVID-19 vaccine to Bangladesh.
The announcement came Friday, just nine days after the arrival of the first batch of 500,000 doses of Sinopharm vaccine as a gift.
China says the move fully reflects that it attaches great importance to the friendly relations between the two countries.
Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi had a phone conversation with Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen on Friday to this end.
Read Bangladesh, China, others call for avoiding vaccine nationalism
At the request of Bangladesh, it was announced that China would handover the second batch of 600,0000 vaccine doses to Bangladesh.
China pays close attention to the latest situation of the epidemic in Bangladesh, the Chinese Embassy in Dhaka said.
At this critical time in Bangladesh’s fight against the epidemic, China is concerned about the urgent need for vaccinating its Bangladeshi friends, to help the overcomes the huge demand for domestic and foreign orders and the shortage of vaccine supply, it said.
The arrival of the second batch vaccine will definitely help the Bangladeshi government and people build a strong line of defense against the epidemic, China said.
Also read: Govt approves proposal to import Sinofarm vaccine
In the future, China is willing to provide necessary support for Bangladesh and South Asian countries to fight the epidemic, deepen anti-epidemic cooperation with Bangladesh, and effectively protect the health and security of their citizens.
The Chinese Foreign Minister assured of providing all kinds of support to ensure continuation of "stable supply" of COVID vaccines to Bangladesh.
Dr Momen requested his Chinese counterpart to take an initiative for coproduction of vaccines in Bangladesh.
The Chinese Foreign Minister said they will encourage the Chinese companies to go for coproduction of vaccines with Bangladesh.
Read WHO team working with Chinese vaccine producers ahead of potential emergency use: WHO director-general
He said China keeps up its support with Malaysia, Turkey, Brazil and the United Arab Emirates on vaccine coproduction.
Bangladesh reaches out to int'l media as it seeks vaccines desperately
Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen on Friday reached out to the global media to let the world know that Bangladesh looks for vaccines desperately and is ready to accept any shipment desperately from any country, including the United States.
"We need it desperately. If any shipment comes, we’ll take it right away," he told CNN in a live interview.
Dr Momen said the big problem is that a large number of people in Bangladesh who took the first dose of Oxford-AstraZeneca could not take the second dose.
"Because we don't have any more. We can't give them the second dose. That’s creating a lot of problems for us," said the Foreign Minister.
Read: More countries approached for vaccines; talks with China at final stage: FM
He said the government of Bangladesh is trying to get vaccines from other places and they were delighted when Bangladesh heard that the US will be distributing some of the AstraZeneca vaccines that they have.
Dr Momen said he had requested the US government and sent a letter to his counterpart US Secretary of State. "They agreed to give us by and large."
Now the problem is, he said, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is taking a long time to approve the export of AstraZeneca.
Dr Momen said they are thankful to US President Joe Biden for announcing that the USA will be distributing some of the Astrazeneca vaccine doses to developing countries, pretty large numbers - 60 million plus 20 around - 80 million doses. "This is good news for us."
Exploring Multiple Options
On Thursday, Dr Momen said the government is giving its best efforts to get vaccines connecting multiple countries - the United States, China, Canada, Russia and the UK apart from its continuous request to India to meet Bangladesh's urgent needs.
He said the discussion with China is almost at the final stage while they are expecting a positive reply from the US on the vaccine front.
While talking to reporters at State guesthouse Padma, Dr Momen said there are people who could not take the second dose of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine due to short supply from India.
He also highlighted the ongoing discussion with Russia. "Hope, everything will be settled within a week."
Responding to a question, the Foreign Minister said they came to know unofficially that Bangladesh is not in the priority list of the USA as there is a lesser number of deaths in Bangladesh.
"I didn't like the idea. They (US) don't think it's a crisis in Bangladesh," he said, adding that it is an emergency issue for Bangladesh.
US State Department Coordinator for Global COVID Response and Health Security Gayle E. Smith has said the United States is going to be the largest sharer of vaccine jabs putting 80 million additional vaccine doses into the mix.
"I can’t tell you at this point what the allocation is going to be per country. We’ll have information for you later on. And as I think I mentioned, we are also, with respect to India and also India’s neighbors, mounting an emergency humanitarian response given the surges that are ongoing there," she said.
In a telephonic media briefing on Wednesday, Smith referred to an announcement by US President Joe Biden earlier this week that they will be sharing 20 million vaccine doses from their own stocks in addition to the 60 million AstraZeneca doses that were announced previously by the President.
"So that means we’re going to be putting 80 million additional vaccines into the mix, making us the largest sharer of vaccine doses thus far," she said.
Read:S Korean envoy shares historical documents with FM Momen
The US official said given the surge there, India has been a major priority for the US. "We’ve delivered $100 million in emergency assistance; mobilised with the American private sector a pretty amazing response, again, from the American private sector and public, and we’ll continue to do so."
Smith said she does not have anything to say yet on the ultimate allocations, but they will reach out and make sure that all are informed when those decisions are made.
Responding to a question on India, Dr Momen said India did never say that they will not give vaccine doses to Bangladesh but failed to deliver.
He said India was requested to provide vaccine doses to Bangladesh as a gift to meet its emergency need if India has an embargo on export.
"I should say we had a very positive discussion (with my Indian counterpart," Dr Momen said.
Bangladesh loses 26 more lives to Covid, toll reaches 12,310
Bangladesh lost 26 more lives in the second wave of Covid in 24 hours till Friday morning, taking the country's fatalities to 12,310.
The daily infection rate rose to 8.22% from Thursday's 7.50%, said the Directorate General of Health Services.
Meanwhile, 1,504 people came out positive in 18,294 tests carried out over the same period, pushing the country's caseload to 786,698.
"The fatality number, recorded so far, is lower compared to the number of positive cases. This warrants conduction of genomic sequencing to see if any new but less virulent variant is in the offing," Dr AM Zakir Hussain, former director of the Institute of Epidemiology Disease Control and Research, told UNB.
Meanwhile, the fatality rate remained unchanged at 1.56% and the recovery rate stood at 92.67%.
Read: 3 India returnees test positive for Covid in Magura
So far, the country has carried out 5,793,177 sample tests since reporting its first cases on March 8 last year and the first death on the 18th of that month.
Vaccination drive
Bangladesh launched its vaccination drive on February 7 with Oxford-AstraZeneca doses purchased from India's Serum Institute.
The administration of the first dose has remained suspended since April 26. Also, the country, the prime recipient of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines, has suspended the registration for Covid-19 jabs due to vaccine shortage amid a delay in the timely arrival of shipments from India.
Vaccine supply update
The government signed an agreement with Serum for 30 million doses. But a record number of cases in India has made the delivery of the doses uncertain.
Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen Friday reached out to global media to let the world know that Bangladesh is desperately looking for vaccines and ready to accept any shipment from any country including the US.
"A large number of people in Bangladesh, who took the first dose of Oxford-AstraZeneca, could not get the second dose because we have run out of supplies," the minister said.
Also, Dr Momen said he had requested the US government and sent a letter to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
"They agreed to give us vaccine. However, the US Food and Drug Administration is taking much time to approve the export of AstraZeneca," he said.
Read:Bangladesh reaches out to int'l media as it seeks vaccines desperately
The minister Thursday said the government was making its best efforts to get vaccines from multiple countries – the US, China, Canada, Russia and the UK – apart from its continuous request to India to meet Bangladesh's urgent needs.
Bangladesh received 5 lakh China's Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine doses as a gift on May 12. The administering of the shots will begin by May 25-26, said Health Minister Zahid Maleque.
Also, the country would receive a minimum of 106,000 doses of Pfizer vaccine under the COVAX scheme, co-led by Gavi on June 2, Zahid Maleque said Tuesday.
Besides, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs Wednesday approved a proposal of the Health Services Division to import the Sinofarm Covid-19 vaccine.
Strict lockdown imposed in Teknaf and five Rohingya camps
Amid a huge surge in Covid-19 cases in the region, a 10-day complete lockdown has been imposed in Teknaf upazila while week-long similar restrictions have been announced in five Rohingya camps of Ukhiya-Teknaf.
"Cox’s Bazar District Corona Prevention Committee has decided to impose the lockdown from May 21 to 30 in the wake of a rise in the number of infections in the region," Md Parvez Chowdhury, Upazila Nirbahi Officer of Teknaf, said on Friday.
Meanwhile, a strict lockdown has been imposed in Ukhiya camps -- 2,3,4 and 15 -- and Teknaf camp number 24 for a week from May 21, said additional refugee relief and repatriation commissioner Md Shamshuddouza.
Read:Rohingya Crisis: Korea provides $4 mn to support 2021 JRP
All activities in these camps have been suspended from Friday, except emergency services like medicine and food supplies, officials said.
According to the health department in Cox’s Bazar, 823 Rohingyas have been infected with the virus to date and 12 have died.
Bangladesh is currently hosting over 1.1 million Rohingyas across 34 camps in Cox’s Bazar and Bhasan Char. Most of them have arrived in this country since August 25, 2017, when the Myanmar military launched a brutal offensive targeting the mainly-Muslim ethnic minority.
3 India returnees test positive for Covid in Magura
Three Bangladeshis, who recently returned from India, have tested positive for Covid-19.
Of them, one is a 50-year-old woman. The other two are men, aged 25 and 40 years. They are originally residents of Satkhira, Tangail and Kushtia, respectively.
Civil Surgeon of Magura district Dr Md Shahidulla Dewan said the three patients have been shifted to the Corona ward of Magura Hospital from an institutional quarantine centre in the district.
Read:Covid patient infected with Indian variant held in Chandpur
Genome sequencing is in process to determine if the patients are infected with the Indian double mutant variant, said the Civil Surgeon. "Within 72 hours, the reports will come,” he said.
On May 8 and 9, a total of 101 Bangladeshis returned through Benapole land port and were kept under institutional quarantine at three different hotels.
Of them, samples of 97 were sent to Jashore University of Science and Technology on Wednesday, excluding the four, who were already transferred to the hospital for treatment.
On Thursday, these three returnees were confirmed Covid positive as the administration received reports of 67 of them.
Read: 10-year-old India returnee tests positive for Covid in Jashore
As India has been experiencing a new strain of Covid-19, the government imposed restrictions along the border areas of Bangladesh. According to the World Health Organisation, the Indian variant has already spread to 60 countries across the world.
Bangladeshi citizens currently travelling to India for treatment and having visas with validity for less than 15 days could enter Bangladesh only through Benapole, Akhaura and Burimari after taking permission from Bangladesh diplomatic missions in New Delhi, Kolkata, and Agartala, and with a mandatory Covid-negative certificate.
Global Covid cases top 165 million
Covid-19 continues its onslaught across the world, even with mass inoculations underway. The overall number of corona cases has now topped 165 million.
The total cases and fatalities reached 165,253,588 and 3,425,648, respectively, on Friday morning, as per the latest data released by Johns Hopkins University (JHU).
The Covid-19 cases in the US, the worst-hit country in the world, have surged past 33 million now. The total caseload and deaths in the country currently stand at 33,055,801 and 588,531, respectively, as per JHU.
Also read: US civil rights leader urges Biden To give 60 million Covid-19 vaccine doses to India
India has been experiencing a precarious situation of handling the Covid-19 situation as the country has registered 26,030,674 cases with 291,365 deaths to date.
However, a Hindustan Times analysis show that some of India’s Covid-19 hotspots are on a recovery path with seven out of every 10 Indians living in the 19 Indian states and Union territories, some of which were its early epicenters, seeing an improvement.
Among the 19 are Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, some of which were ravaged by the second wave with the healthcare systems of most being overwhelmed by a rush of hospitalisations.
Brazil has the world's second-highest Covid-19 death toll, after the United States, and the third-largest caseload, following the United States and India.
The country has logged 15,898,558 cases and 444,391 deaths, as of Friday.
Also read: India to begin clinical trials for Covd-19 vaccine in children
Situation in Bangladesh
Bangladesh on Thursday reported 36 Covid-19 deaths in 24 hours, taking the national count to 12,284. The mortality rate though remains static at 1.56%.
Besides, the country saw 1,457 new cases as 19,437 samples were tested during the 24-hour period, the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) said.
The infection rate fell to 7.50% from Wednesday’s 7.83%.
Also read: Covid-19: 36 more die in Bangladesh, 1,457 others infected
Vaccination drive
In the past 24 hours, not a single citizen in the country received the first dose of the vaccine. However, 53,915 people received the second dose during the period.
The administering of the first dose has remained suspended since April 26. Also, the country, the prime recipient of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, has suspended the registration for Covid-19 jabs due to an acute shortage of the same amid a delay in the timely arrival of shipments from India.
Bangladesh launched its vaccination drive on February 7 with Oxford-AstraZeneca doses acquired from India's Serum Institute.
Covid patient infected with Indian variant held in Chandpur
A Bangladeshi man who fled Jashore hospital after testing positive for the Indian variant of Coronavirus last week was detained from Chandpur on Wednesday.
Younus Gazi, 28, a resident of Cahrrampur village, was held from the district’s Bipinbag area in a drive conducted by a team of Faridganj police led by Officer-in-Charge Md Shahid Hossain.
Also read: Covid-19: Three more cases of Indian variant reported in Bangladesh
Three of Gazi’s family members, including his mother, were admitted to the Isolation Ward of Faridganj Upazila Health Complex under police surveillance, Upazila Health and Family Planning Officer Dr Ashraf Ahmed Chowdhury said Thursday.
“Samples were collected from them today for testing,” he said.
Also read: Indian Variant: The New Concern
Ten coronavirus patients fled from the Jashore District Government Hospital on April 24 and 25. Six of them, including Gazi, had returned from India.
Police caught all 10 patients on April 26 and brought them back to the hospital.
Also read: Indian variant couldn't spread much: Health Minister
Gazi managed to flee from there on May 13 while he tested positive for the Indian variant of the virus.
More countries approached for vaccines; talks with China at final stage: FM
Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen on Thursday said the government is making its best efforts to get vaccines connecting multiple countries -- the United States, China, Canada, Russia and the UK -- apart from its continuous request to India to meet Bangladesh's urgent needs.
He said the discussion with China is almost at the final stage while they are expecting a positive reply from the US on the vaccine front.
While talking to reporters at State guesthouse Padma, Dr Momen said there are people who could not take a second dose of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine due to short supply from India.
Before the briefing, the Foreign Minister had a meeting with South Korean Ambassador to Bangladesh Lee Jang-keun at State guesthouse Padma.
He also highlighted the ongoing discussion with Russia. "Hope, everything will be settled within a week."
Responding to a question, the Foreign Minister said they came to know unofficially that Bangladesh is not there on the priority list of the USA as there is a lesser number of deaths in Bangladesh.
Covid-19: 36 more die in Bangladesh, 1,457 others infected
Covid-19 claimed 36 more lives and infected 1,457 others in Bangladesh in 24 hours till Thursday morning.
With the latest figure, the number of fatalities rose to 12,284, said a handout of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
The daily infection rate slightly declined to 7.50 percent from Wednesday’s 7.83 percent while the mortality rate remained static at 1.56 percent, it said.
The new cases pushed up the total caseload to 7,85,194.
The total number of recoveries is 7,27,510, including 1378 in the last 24 hours. This puts the country’s recovery rate at 92.65%
Bangladesh is now seeing a steep rise in the numbers of both daily deaths and cases after a decline during the Eid holidays.
The number of tests is seeing an increase as around 20,000 samples were tested during the past two days which mostly remained below 20,000 since May 7.
So far, the country has carried out 57,74,883 sample tests since reporting its first cases on March 8 last year and the first death on the 18th of that month.
Vaccination drive
Bangladesh launched its vaccination drive on February 7 with Oxford-AstraZeneca doses purchased from India's Serum Institute.
The government signed an agreement with Serum for 30 million doses. But a record number of cases in India has made the delivery of the doses uncertain.
The administring of the first dose has remained suspended since April 26. Also, the country, the prime recipient of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines, has suspended the registration for Covid-19 jabs due to vaccine shortage amid a delay in the timely arrival of shipments from India.
In the past 24 hours, no one received the first dose of the vaccine while 53,915 have received the second dose, said the health directorate.
Vaccine supply update
Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen on Thursday said the government is making its best efforts to get vaccines connecting multiple countries -- the United States, China, Canada, Russia and the UK -- apart from its continuous request to India to meet Bangladesh's urgent needs.
He said the discussion with China is almost at the final stage while they are expecting a positive reply from the US on the vaccine front.
Bangladesh received 5 lakh China’s Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine doses, donated by the Chinese government to Bangladesh, on May 12 the administering of which will begin by May 25-26, said the Health Minister.
Bangladesh will receive a minimum 1,06,000 doses of Pfizer vaccine under the COVAX scheme, co-led by Gavi on June 2, Health Minister Zahid Maleque said Tuesday.
Besides, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on Wednesday approved a proposal of the Health Services Division to import the Sinofarm Covid-19 vaccine.