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.   

Some 25 lakh more doses of the Pfizer vaccine arrived in Dhaka early on Tuesday morning, under the COVAX initiative. A cargo flight of National Airlines, carrying the vaccine doses gifted by the US, landed at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport arround 5am, Health Ministry officials said. Senior officials of the Health Ministry, the health department, Central Medical Stores Depot (CMSD) and the airport authority were present to take the delivery of the jabs. Read: World could return to normal within a year: Pfizer CEO "Pleased to announce the arrival of another 2.5 million doses of Pfizer vaccine," said US Ambassador to Bangladesh Earl R Miller.  This brings the total US vaccine donation to 9 million, with more on the way very soon, he said.  These are a gift from the USA to Bangladesh, said the envoy. "Alongside $96 million,  continue to stand together to fight COVID-19," he said. Earlier, Bangladesh received over 1 lakh doses of the Pfizer vaccine in the first phase and 10.03 lakh doses in the second phase from the US. With the arrival of the fresh batch, Bangladesh has received a total of 36.04 lakh doses of the vaccine to date. So far, the country has received 4.94 crore doses of AstraZeneca, Sinopharm and Moderna vaccines under the COVAX facility.  According to the Health Ministry, some 2,48,80,898 people got their first Covid shot while 1,64,99,866 were administered the second dose till September 27. Besides, a process to import some two crore doses of the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine each month is underway. Apart from this, another process to procure 24 crore doses of the vaccine through the World Health Organisation is going on.  Read: Dhaka to receive another 25 lakh Pfizer vaccine doses Monday

Bangladesh has recorded more than 6,000 new coronavirus cases for the second consecutive day as the country ramps up efforts to contain the virus’ transmission. It was the fourth time in five days that Bangladesh reported its highest daily coronavirus cases when the health authorities confirmed 6,830 new infections on Friday afternoon. The infection rate rose to 23.28 percent from 22.94 of Thursday’s when the country recorded 6,469 cases, the highest in months. On Wednesday, the number of new cases was 5,358. It was 5,042 on Tuesday and 5,181 on Monday. The number of daily cases and infection rate dropped below 5 percent earlier this year but there was an unusual surge as people continue to flout health safety rules. The sudden spurt appears to have caught the health sector unawares. Also read: Fighting the Second Wave: Govt seeks stricter implementation of PMO directives There is hardly any bed available at hospitals treating coronavirus patients. The government is increasing the number of beds and covid-designated hospitals to deal with the situation. Bangladesh has so far recorded 624,594 coronavirus cases, according to a handout issued by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).

Chinese Ambassador to Bangladesh Li Jiming on Friday said they are now in close discussion with Bangladesh over coronavirus vaccine assistance.

With the rollout of the Covid vaccination programme, the United Nations has urged key workers and other vulnerable people in 145 countries to get immunised by the first half of this year.