Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen has laid emphasis on sustained and significant funds injected for capacity-building of the health sector, especially in lower income countries. He welcomed the formation of the financial intermediary fund at the World Bank to complement investments in prevention, preparedness and response (PPR). Dr Momen stressed on devising a global health strategy that will prepare the world better for any future pandemic.  Read US announces over $170 million in humanitarian assistance for Rohingyas He underscored the need to create a playbook where the countries will be ready to respond immediately to future health threats.  Dr Momen was speaking at the opening session of the COVID-19 Global Action Plan (GAP) Ministerial held in New York on Friday, September 23. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares Bueno and Botswana Foreign Minister Dr. Lemogang Kwape jointly convened the Ministerial, aiming at bringing together partners to maintain and strengthen political will to address COVID-19 challenges.  Read First dose of Covid-19 vaccine won’t be administered after Oct 3: Health Minister The Foreign Ministers from several countries, including from Japan, Saudi Arabia and Thailand, and the Director General of WHO participated in the meeting. High level delegates from a number of countries, including France, Indonesia, Germany, UK, India, Norway, Italy, and South Korea also joined.  Dr Momen highlighted that under the visionary leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh was a standout success in COVID-19 response.  He said that Bangladesh was open to sharing its COVID-19 management experience, which had been centered around saving lives, supporting livelihoods — especially of the most vulnerable, and posting quick economic recovery.   Also read: FM attends dinner hosted by Jaishankar in New York Stressing further on the global partnership and concerted efforts, Foreign Minister lauded the multilateral processes, including initiatives like ACT-A and COVAX under WHO that played an important role in making vaccines and other COVID materials available.  However, he reminded that the pandemic was not over yet, and vaccination needed to continue.  To this effect, the Foreign Minister reiterated that vaccines should be declared global public goods and distributed without discrimination. Read Covid-19: NTAC places 5 recommendations A joint statement was issued at the end of the Ministerial with concrete recommendations and ways forward, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.  It highlighted the state of the global response to COVID-19 in line with six core lines of efforts and the role of foreign ministries to enhance political will and coordination.  The joint statement underscored the importance of enhanced coordination among GAP partners to fill remaining gaps in the pandemic response, and build better health security to prevent, prepare for, and respond to future health threats. Read 1971 genocide by Pakistani military most heinous crimes in human history: Momen

In one year, UNICEF has delivered over 190 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to Bangladesh through COVAX while a COVID-19 booster dose campaign is planned for June. To date, Bangladesh remains the top recipient of doses under COVAX, the global initiative co-led by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovation, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and the World Health Organization, with UNICEF as a key delivery partner. Also read: Richest countries damaging child health worldwide: Unicef COVAX accounts for more than 62 per cent of doses received by the country. The goal of COVAX is to ensure equitable access of COVID-19 vaccines globally, said UNICEF on Tuesday. COVID-19 vaccinations started in Bangladesh in February 2021. UNICEF delivered the first COVAX shipment of vaccines to Bangladesh on 1 June 2021, at a time when only 4 per cent of the population in the country were fully vaccinated. A year on, thanks to a strong partnership between the Government, the World Health Organization, UNICEF and other partners, Bangladesh has fully vaccinated with two doses 69 per cent of its population – a staggering 117 million people. “Bangladesh’s ability to absorb and roll out COVID-19 vaccines is a testament to what can be achieved when there is political commitment and an equitable supply of vaccines,” said Sheldon Yett, UNICEF Representative to Bangladesh. The success in getting millions of vaccines quickly and safely into arms in every corner of the country has been nothing short of remarkable, Yett, added. “With the committed strong leadership of the Prime Minister, Bangladesh has shown incredible resilience to face the COVID-19 pandemic. With continuous supply of vaccines and hard work of dedicated health workers, we have been able to vaccinate the targeted population without wasting doses,” said Prof. Dr. Meerjady Sabrina Flora, Additional Directorate General (Planning and Development), DGHS, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. UNICEF has also supported the Government’s COVID-19 response by strengthening the cold chain and ultra-cold chain, delivering critical supplies, generating demand, supporting data management and building capacity for vaccine administration. These investments will continue to serve the people of Bangladesh for years to come beyond the COVID-19 crisis. Also read: UNICEF: South Asia is epicentre of severely wasted children; Bangladesh fares better than India, Pakistan They are especially important to keep children safe from vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles and polio. “Bangladesh with 69 per cent fully vaccinated population is close to achieving the global benchmark of 70 per cent fully vaccinated population by June 2022. The success could not have been possible without COVAX support. The ongoing pace of vaccination gives us a hope to see the end of COVID-19 as a global health emergency. Let us also not forget that the pandemic is not over anywhere until it’s over everywhere” said Dr. Bardan Jung Rana, WHO Representative to Bangladesh.

UNICEF has listed Bangladesh, Peru, Vietnam and the Philippines as "Covid-19 Vaccine Success Stories" in their recent report, noting that Bangladesh's vaccination rate has risen sharply. When the first COVID-19 vaccines supplied by COVAX touched down in Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka, in June 2021, less than four per cent of all adults were fully vaccinated, said UNICEF. Also read: Help all reach vaccination targets, Hasina urges COVAX summit Fast forward less than a year and that number has risen dramatically, said the UN agency, adding that by the beginning of April, 67 per cent of the population had received two doses.  Bangladesh has advanced eight notches to rank 5th out of 121 countries across the globe on Nikkei’s Covid-19 Recovery Index. Of the other South Asian countries in the list, Nepal ranked 6th, Pakistan 23rd, Sri Lanka 31st, and India were 70th. With a score of 80 on the index, Bangladesh ranked only below Qatar, the UAE, Cambodia and Rwanda in the latest edition of the index published recently. COVAX has played a crucial role in that achievement. More than half of all the COVID-19 vaccines delivered to Bangladesh last year were through the programme, according to UNICEF. Political priority at the highest level spearheaded by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina herself; continuous diplomatic efforts to acquire sufficient amount of vaccines from bilateral as well as multilateral sources and an established capacity, in terms of infrastructure and human resources, to roll out large-scale nationwide immunization programmes are mainly three factors enabled Bangladesh to pull of this amazing feat, said Shah Ali Farhad, a former special assistant to the Prime Minister, while sharing his observation in a Facebook post. Also read: 2nd round of mega Covid vaccination drive extended until April 3: Health Minister Young volunteers in Bangladesh have played an important role in making sure those shots get to people’s arms, UNICEF said. “They’ve been reaching out to communities to amplify the message that COVID-19 vaccines are safe and available.” Mukta is one of those volunteers and has been driven by a desire to help other people during the pandemic and so she joined UNICEF as a volunteer.   Mukta has been going door to door, often talking to elderly people, families living in slums, and those who don’t have access to a mobile phone or the internet.  “I’ve seen so many vulnerable people,” says Mukta. “I enjoy going to people’s homes and raising awareness about vaccination. I love helping them.”

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has extended his thanks to British Bangladeshis for everything they have done in their struggle against Covid and said they look forward to the next 50 years of friendship between Britain and Bangladesh. “Let’s look forward to the next 50 years of friendship between Britain and Bangladesh. Joy Bangla,” he said in a video message as they also celebrated the Golden Anniversary of Bangladesh’s independence. Read: Bangladesh saw a decline in terrorist activity in 2020: US report The British Prime Minister mentioned that just this week the UK donated over 4 million AstraZeneca vaccines to Bangladesh through COVAX, the vaccination alliance. “So, get boosted now for yourself, for your friends and your family,” he said, noting that at this moment thousands of “fantastic” doctors and nurses of Bangladeshi heritage are working in their NHS (National Health Service), providing care and comfort and saving many lives. Prime Minister Boris said the best thing they can all do to support their efforts and keep them safe is to get “booster” jabs as soon as possible. “So please go online and book your booster jab to protect yourself and everyone else from the Omicron variant,” he said. Read: An unbreakable bond forged with blood, sacrifice in 1971: Kovind The British Prime Minister said the faster they are all protected, the faster they can overcome this new threat. “And press ahead with building back better and building back greener. Britain will do that in partnership with Bangladesh in the spirit of 50 years of friendship,” he said.

Twenty-six ultra-low temperature freezers delivered by UNICEF through COVAX are enabling Bangladesh to receive, store and distribute large quantities of COVID-19 vaccines that require ultra-cold storage, according to the UN agency. Each of the 26 freezers can hold over 300,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccines, supporting administration of these jabs into districts beyond Dhaka. In fact, the recent COVAX shipment of some 2.5 million US-donated doses of the Pfizer vaccine is made possible, thanks to this additional ultra-cold chain capacity. “As more countries come forward through COVAX to ensure equitable access to the vaccines, increasing the ultra-cold chain capacity in receiving countries is of crucial importance,” said Tomoo Hozumi, UNICEF representative in Bangladesh. “UNICEF, as an implementing partner of COVAX, will continue to support Bangladesh until the end of the pandemic. No one is safe until everyone is safe,” he added. The delivery of 26 ultra-low temperature freezers to Bangladesh is part of UNICEF’s global target of delivering 350 ultra-low temperature freezers to more than 45 countries on behalf of COVAX. READ: Dhaka to receive 7.90 lakh AstraZeneca vaccine doses Saturday This is an immense and unprecedented undertaking to develop national cold-chain capacities in order to accelerate the number of fully vaccinated people in the shortest possible time. As of today, only 9 percent of the population in Bangladesh has been fully vaccinated, according to UNICEF. COVAX aims to ensure equitable access to vaccines and supplies, particularly to low and middle-income countries. “WHO highly appreciates COVAX for extending its support to the Government of Bangladesh,” said Dr Bardan Jung Rana, WHO Country Representative. “Ensuring global access to Covid-19 vaccines offers the best hope to slow down the pandemic, save lives and secure the world economic recovery. Each of these freezers will play a key role in improving the country’s ultra-low cold chain vaccine storage capacity. Ensuring that vaccines reach everybody, everywhere is the top priority and a critical step towards health for all. We cannot afford to leave anyone behind,” he added. READ: Am I fully vaccinated without a COVID-19 vaccine booster? Vaccines and supplies through the COVAX facility to low- and middle-income countries, including Bangladesh, are generously supported both by donor pledges and by direct donations. UNICEF and WHO call on the continued and greater support to COVAX from donors and from countries that have already achieved high coverage.

The global leaders have pledged financing, dose donations, support for country readiness and delivery, and scale-up of global manufacturing to enable equitable access to Covid vaccines. To improve access for the lower-income economies, the US will contribute an additional 500 million doses of Pfizer vaccine, to be delivered through COVAX, beginning in 2022. Sweden will provide an additional $243 million through 2021 and 2022. New dose commitments from the European Union, including Italy and Spain, as well as Sweden, Denmark, and Japan mean further doses will be available to COVAX participants in 2021 and 2022. Global leaders made the commitment while attending the Global Covid-19 Summit hosted by the US Thursday. They underlined their commitment to ensuring equitable access to Covid vaccines for all countries through COVAX – noting that equitable access is essential to end the acute stage of the pandemic. Building on the momentum and global solidarity generated over the past eighteen months by various commitments, including at summits organised by the European Commission, the G20 under the Saudi and Italian presidencies, the UK, including the G7 under its presidency, the US, and the prime minister of Japan, the summit saw further pledges made to COVAX and equitable access. READ: Declare Covid vaccines as 'global public good': Hasina Alongside these commitments, several countries pledged additional dose donations to be made available to countries around the world, including through COVAX, with Spain pledging an additional 7.5 million doses, Italy pledging an additional 30 million doses to be made available by the end of the year. And Japan, which hosted the "One World Protected" Gavi COVAX AMC Summit in June 2021, pledging approximately 60 million doses. Also, Denmark announced during the United Nations General Assembly this week that it would be doubling its dose donation commitment, bringing the total to 6 million doses pledged to be shared. José Manuel Barroso, chair of the Gavi board, said this summit marks a major step forward in the global response against Covid and a major step forward for multilateralism. Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organisation, said if they are to meet the targets they have set of vaccinating 10% of the population of all countries by the end of this month, 40% by the end of 2021 and 70% by mid-next-year, they need to drastically scale up access to vaccines now. Unicef Executive Director Henrietta Fore said with only 12% of the pledges made earlier this year turning into actual doses, low-income countries can no longer wait. "We urge dose-sharing countries to accelerate their donation plans." READ: Conduct study to understand vaccine performances, suitability in Bangladesh: Experts    Dr Seth Berkley, CEO of Gavi, said with the rise of variants and the current gap in equitable access to Covid vaccines they must urgently vaccinate those most at risk everywhere in the world. "We cannot afford further delays in getting vaccines to the most vulnerable – to do so will mean a continuation of this pandemic and its impact on all of our lives." So far COVAX has delivered more than 300 million doses to 142 economies, and according to the latest forecast, approximately 1.2 billion doses will be available for the lower-income economies supported by the COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC) by the end of 2021. This is enough to protect 20% of the population, or 40% of all adults, in all 92 AMC economies with the exception of India. The key COVAX milestone of 2 billion doses released for delivery is now expected to be reached in the first quarter of 2022.

India will resume exports of COVID-19 vaccines in the October quarter, prioritising the global vaccine-sharing platform COVAX and neighbouring countries first as supplies rise, the health minister said on Monday, reports Reuters.   India, the world's biggest maker of vaccines, stopped exports of COVID shots in April to focus on inoculating its own population as infections exploded. The country's monthly vaccine output has since more than doubled and is set to quadruple to over 300 million doses next month, minister Mansukh Mandaviya said, adding that only excess supplies would be exported. Total production could top 1 billion in the last three months of the year as new vaccines from companies such as Biological E are likely to be approved, he said. "We will help other countries and also fulfil our responsibility towards COVAX," he told reporters. Reuters reported last week that India was considering restarting exports of COVID-19 vaccines soon. It donated or sold 66 million doses to nearly 100 countries before the export halt. read more The announcement on resumption of exports in the October to December quarter comes ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Washington this week where vaccines are likely to be discussed at a summit of the leaders of the Quad countries - the United States, India, Japan and Australia. India wants to vaccinate all its 944 million adults by December and has so far given at least one dose to 64% of them and two doses to 22%. India's inoculations have jumped since last month, especially as the world's biggest vaccine maker, the Serum Institute of India, has more than trebled its output of the AstraZeneca (AZN.L) shot to 200 million doses a month from April levels.   Indian companies have set up the capacity to produce nearly 3 billion COVID vaccine doses a year.

Head of Delegation of the European Union to Bangladesh Ambassador Rensje Teerink has said ‘Team Europe’ will share with low- and middle-income countries at least 100 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines by the end of 2021, mainly via Covax.  "Ensuring access to safe and affordable Covid-19 vaccines around the world is a priority for the EU," she told UNB while giving an overview of what the EU is contributing under Covax.  The Ambassador said Team Europe (the EU, its institutions and all 27 member states) is on track to exceed this goal, with 200 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines foreseen to be shared with the countries that need them most, by the end of 2021. Also read: EU looking closely at Bangladesh: Teerink Teerink said Covax has so far delivered 122 million doses to 136 countries. 

US Ambassador to Bangladesh Earl R. Miller and Senior Secretary of the Health Service Division Lokman Hossian Miah on Wednesday welcomed the arrival of one million doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine in Bangladesh. The vaccine doses are donated by the United States as part of the U.S. Government’s commitment to donate 500 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine globally. Bangladesh is expected to receive another 5 million doses of the same vaccine from the US this month. They build on earlier donations of the Moderna vaccine, for a total of 6.5 million doses gifted by the U.S. Government and the American people to the people of Bangladesh. Director General of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) Professor Abul Bashar Mohammad Khurshid Alam and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Mission Director Kathryn Stevens were also present at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport to receive the shipment of vaccines, facilitated through COVAX. Read: Covid positivity rate shrinks to 10%, cases and deaths continue declining

An international system to share coronavirus vaccines was supposed to guarantee that low and middle-income countries could get doses without being last in line and at the mercy of unreliable donations. It hasn’t worked out that way. In late June alone, the initiative known as COVAX sent some 530,000 doses to Britain – more than double the amount sent that month to the entire continent of Africa. Under COVAX, countries were supposed to give money so vaccines could be set aside, both as donations to poor countries and as an insurance policy for richer ones to buy doses if theirs fell through. Some rich countries, including those in the European Union, calculated that they had more than enough doses available through bilateral deals and ceded their allocated COVAX doses to poorer countries. But others, including Britain, tapped into the meager supply of COVAX doses themselves, despite being among the countries that had reserved most of the world’s available vaccines. In the meantime, billions of people in poor countries have yet to receive a single dose. The result is that poorer countries have landed in exactly the predicament COVAX was supposed to avoid: dependent on the whims and politics of rich countries for donations, just as they have been so often in the past. And in many cases, rich countries don’t want to donate in significant amounts before they finish vaccinating all their citizens who could possibly want a dose, a process that is still playing out. “If we had tried to withhold vaccines from parts of the world, could we have made it any worse than it is today?” asked Dr. Bruce Aylward, a senior advisor at the World Health Organization, during a public session on vaccine equity. Other wealthy nations that recently received paid doses through COVAX include Qatar, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, all of which have relatively high immunization rates and other means of acquiring vaccines. Qatar has promised to donate 1.4 million doses of vaccines and already shipped out more than the 74,000 doses it received from COVAX. The U.S. never got any doses through COVAX, although Canada, Australia and New Zealand did. Canada got so much criticism for taking COVAX shipments that it said it would not request additional ones. In the meantime, Venezuela has yet to receive any of its doses allocated by COVAX. Haiti has received less than half of what it was allocated, Syria about a 10th. In some cases, officials say, doses weren’t sent because countries didn’t have a plan to distribute them. Also read: The link between the COVID-19 vaccine and pregnancy British officials confirmed the U.K. received about 539,000 vaccine doses in late June and that it has options to buy another 27 million shots through COVAX. “The government is a strong champion of COVAX,” the U.K. said, describing the initiative as a mechanism for all countries to obtain vaccines, not just those in need of donations. It declined to explain why it chose to receive those doses despite private deals that have reserved eight injections for every U.K. resident. Brook Baker, a Northeastern University law professor who specializes in access to medicines, said it was unconscionable that rich countries would dip into COVAX vaccine supplies when more than 90 developing countries had virtually no access. COVAX’s biggest supplier, the Serum Institute of India, stopped sharing vaccines in April to deal with a surge of cases on the subcontinent. Although the number of vaccines being bought by rich countries like Britain through COVAX is relatively small, the extremely limited global supply means those purchases result in fewer shots for poor countries. So far, the initiative has delivered less than 10% of the doses it promised. COVAX is run by the World Health Organization, the vaccine alliance Gavi and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, a group launched in 2017 to develop vaccines to stop outbreaks. The program is now trying to regain credibility by getting rich countries to distribute their donated vaccines through its own system, Baker said. But even this effort is not entirely successful because some countries are making their own deals to curry favorable publicity and political clout. “Rich countries are trying to garner geopolitical benefits from bilateral dose-sharing,” Baker noted. So far, with the exception of China, donations are coming in tiny fractions of what was pledged, an Associated Press tally of vaccines promised and delivered has found. Dr. Christian Happi, an infectious diseases expert at Nigeria’s Redeemer’s University, said donations from rich countries are both insufficient and unreliable, especially as they have not only taken most of the world’s supplies but are moving on to vaccinate children and considering administering booster shots. Happi called on Africa, where 1.5 percent of the population is fully vaccinated, to increase its own vaccine manufacturing rather than rely on COVAX. “We cannot just wait for them to come up with a solution,” he said. COVAX is well aware of the problem. During its last board meeting in late June, health officials conceded they had failed to achieve equitable distribution. But they still decided against blocking donor countries from buying up supplies themselves. At a subsequent meeting with partners, Gavi CEO Dr. Seth Berkley said COVAX intended to honor the agreements it had made with rich countries but would ask them in the future to “adjust” their allocated doses to request fewer vaccines, according to a meeting participant who spoke about the confidential call on condition of anonymity. Among the reasons Berkley cited for Gavi’s reluctance to break or renegotiate contracts signed with rich countries was the potential risk to its balance sheet. In the last year, Britain alone has given more than $860 million to COVAX. Meeting notes from June show that Gavi revised COVAX’s initial plan to split vaccines evenly between rich and poor countries and proposed that poor countries would receive about 75% of COVID-19 doses in the future. Without rich countries’ involvement in COVAX, Gavi said “it would be difficult to secure deals with some manufacturers.” Also read: Moderna says vaccine 93% effective but seeks 3rd-shot in fall In response to an AP request for comment, Gavi said the initiative is aiming to deliver more than 2 billion doses by the beginning of 2022 and described COVAX as “an unprecedented global effort.” “The vast majority of the COVAX supply will go to low- and middle-income countries,” Gavi said in an email about its latest supply forecast. For many countries, it said, “COVAX is the main, if not the only source of COVID-19 vaccine supply.” Spain’s donation to four countries in Latin America – its first via COVAX – reflects how even rich countries with a lot of vaccines are donating a minimum. Spain, which has injected 57 million doses into its own residents, shipped 654,000 the first week in August. The delivery totals 3% of the 22.5 million doses Spain has promised, eventually, to COVAX. Gavi said COVAX now has enough money and pledged donations to one day cover 30% of the population of the world’s poorest countries. But it has made big promises before. In January, COVAX said it had “secured volumes” totaling 640 million doses to deliver by July 2021, all of them under signed agreements, not donations. But by last month, COVAX had only shipped 210 million doses, 40% of which were donated. With COVAX sidelined, vaccine donations have become something of a political contest. China has already exported 770 million doses and last week announced its own goal of sending 2 billion doses to the rest of the world by the end of the year — exactly the same amount as COVAX’s initial plan. That’s far ahead of the rest of the world, according to the AP tally of doses. Britain has delivered just 4.7 million, far short of the 30 million pledged, and the European Union has given 7.1 million and and another 55 million through COVAX contracts. “If the donors are not stepping forward, the people who continue to die are our people,” Strive Masiyiwa, the African Union special envoy on COVID-19 vaccine procurement, said. The United States has so far delivered 111 million doses, less than half of what was promised. Several U.S. lawmakers from both parties argued Wednesday that the government should seize the opportunity for diplomacy by more aggressively seeking credit for the doses it ships overseas. “I think we should make vaccines available throughout the Middle East, but I also think we should have the American flag on every vial,” said Rep. Juan Vargas, a Democrat from California, at a hearing on the state of the pandemic in the Middle East. Even the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, recently decried Europe’s lagging in donations in geopolitical terms as a loss to China. U.S. President Joe Biden, in announcing the U.S. donations that have finally come through, similarly described the doses as a way to counter “Russia and China influencing the world with vaccines.” The White House said the United States has donated more than 110 million vaccine doses, some via COVAX. In addition to its planned vaccine exports, China announced plans to donate $100 million to COVAX to buy more doses for developing countries. “The key to strengthening vaccine cooperation and building the Great Wall of immunization is to ensure equitable access,” said Wang Xiaolong of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, speaking Friday after China hosted an online forum on fair vaccine distribution. The COVAX board has agreed to go back to its basic assumptions about vaccinating the world before the end of the year. High on its list: “An updated definition of fair and equitable access.”