US Ambassador to Bangladesh Earl R. Miller has handed over a donation of 2.5 million doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine to Bangladesh, a gift from the American people.   The Pfizer vaccines build on earlier US COVID-19 vaccine donations for a total of 11.5 million doses donated by the U.S. government and the American people.  Read:Dhaka to receive 25 lakh more Pfizer vaccine doses Ambassador Miller and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Mission Director Kathryn Stevens handed over the vaccine donation to Additional Secretary of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare Syed Mojibul Huq and Director General at the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) Professor Dr. Abul Bashar Mohammad Khurshid Alam during a ceremonial handover event at the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) headquarters in the city on Tuesday. “The United States is pleased to donate these additional 2.5 million doses of life-saving Pfizer vaccine to Bangladesh and continue our support to the national vaccination campaign.  We are also proud to support the global COVAX vaccine initiative to make sure the proper infrastructure is in place to store and administer these Pfizer vaccines safely and effectively,” said Ambassador Miller.  The U.S. government and Government of Bangladesh officials also toured the EPI COVID-19 vaccine storage facility where Pfizer doses are being stored in 26 ultra-cold freezers supplied through the global COVAX vaccine alliance partnership.   

A South Korean panel of experts said Tuesday that vaccines for the novel coronavirus by U.S. pharmaceutical company Pfizer Inc. showed a more than 95 percent efficacy rate, and the use of the vaccine is not problematic for young people.

Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun said Tuesday that South Korea is expected to receive new coronavirus vaccines from American pharmaceutical company Pfizer between late February and early March.

Two drugmakers, Pfizer and Moderna, have announced promising interim results for their vaccine candidates, raising hopes that the end of the pandemic may be in sight. But, if and when the vaccines are authorized by the Food and Drug Administration, distributing them presents a daunting challenge, reports NPR.