Fifty-seven lakh more doses of the Sinophamrm vaccine are scheduled to reach Dhaka from China early Saturday. The consignment of vaccine doses is part of the commercial purchase from China, said Deputy Chief of Mission at the Chinese Embassy in Dhaka Hualong Yan. This is so far the second-largest batch of vaccine doses commercially purchased by Bangladesh from China. As a strategic partner of Bangladesh, China will always remain the most reliable supplier whatever and whenever the country needs, Hualong said. With the new doses, China will have supplied over 2 crore doses of Sinophamrm to Bangladesh commercially. Another 2.4 million doses have also been received from China as bilateral assistance.  

 Bangladesh on Friday received ten lakh (1 million) doses of Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine from China as a gift. This new batch of China-aided vaccine doses arrived just after former batches of 11 lakh gifted Chinese Sinopharm vaccine doses received on May 12 and June 13. Read: Dhaka to receive 10 lakh Sinopharm vaccine doses shortly A chartered flight of Biman Bangladesh Airlines carrying the consignment arrived at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport at 6pm. Besides, another Biman flight is scheduled to leave for China on 14 August to bring more doses of the vaccine. Tahera Khandaker, deputy general manager (Public Relations) of Biman Bangladesh Airlines, confirmed the information. Earlier,  17 lakh more doses of Sinopharm reached here as part of the Covax facility. On the other hand, the government on Wednesday approved a proposal to purchase six crores more doses of the Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine from China. Besides, the government previously paid China for 1.5 crore doses of the vaccine, of which 70 lakh doses have already arrived in the country. In fighting against the virus, China and Bangladesh have always been standing together, supporting and assisting each other in times of difficulties and challenges, vividly illustrating the profound friendship between the two countries, said the Chinese Embassy in Dhaka. The pandemic is yet another reminder that the humanity rise and fall together with a shared future, it said. Confronted by a pandemic like COVID-19, the vision of building a global community of health for all, tide over this trying time through solidarity and cooperation must be championed and any attempt to politicize, label or stigmatize the virus be firmly rejected, said the Embassy.

The Cabinet Committee on Public Purchase on Wednesday approved a proposal of the Health Service Division to procure 60 million doses of Chinese Sinopharm vaccine as the government is trying to gear up its nationwide vaccination drive. According to officials, the vaccine doses will arrive in the country by November this year. Read: Pragmatic talks underway over vaccine procurement But the price of the vaccine doses was not disclosed as there is a non-disclosure agreement with China in this regard, they said.   “We hope the vaccine doses will reach the country by November this year. Since we’ve a non-disclosure agreement, we can’t disclose the price,” Shamsul Arefin, additional secretary of the Cabinet Division, told reporters while briefing them on the issue.  The virtual meeting, chaired by Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal, also approved nine other procurement proposals of different ministries.  The finance minister said, “We’ve calculated that we need to vaccinate some 13.82 crore people. So, we have to buy 27.65 crore vaccine doses. We’ve 2.55 crore vaccine doses in our hands and the remaining amounts need to be collected.”   Earlier, Bangladesh purchased 15 million doses of Sinopharm Covid vaccine from China at a rate lower than what was set in an earlier deal.   Read: Govt. mishandled procurement of Covid-19 vaccine, allege BNP Bangladesh earlier received two million doses of vaccine as a gift from China. On May 27 this year, the same committee approved the procurement of the same Chinese jabs at $10 per dose. China was then upset by the disclosure of the price saying it was a breach of a non-disclosure clause agreed by the two governments.

Some 37,200 doses of China-made Sinopharm vaccine arrived in Sylhet on Friday for resuming the second phase of the Covid-19 vaccination program. Premananda Mandal, Civil Surgeon of Sylhet, received the vaccines on Friday morning. The vaccines are stored at a temperature of 2 to 6 degrees centigrade in the EPI Cold Storage at the Civil Surgeon's Office. Jahidul Islam Sumon, chief health officer of the Sylhet City Corporation in charge of vaccination activities in the Sylhet metropolitan area, said the vaccination program will start around 9-10 am on Saturday at Sylhet Osmani Medical College Hospital. He said no instructions have been received so far for conducting vaccination at other centers in Sylhet. On Saturday, the vaccination program will be inaugurated by vaccinating the students of Osmani Medical College. Students would be vaccinated after showing voter ID cards or college ID cards, he added. Also read: Pfizer, Sinopharm shots to start June 19: Health Minister In Sunamganj, Civil Surgeon Dr Shamsuddin received six thousands doses of Sinopharm vaccine on Friday. According to the government's policy, the vaccination program will be conducted at Sunamganj Sadar Hospital in the second phase from Saturday. He further said the 6,000 doses will be given only in Sadar and if more vaccines arrive later, they will be given in every upazila. Meanwhile in Sherpur, Civil Surgeon Dr AKM Anwarul Rauf received 12,000 doses of Sinopharm vaccine the same day. The vaccination drive in the district will also resume at Sherpur General Hospital from Saturday. In Chattogram, 91,200 doses of the vaccine arrived in the third phase. Chattogram District Civil Surgeon Sheikh Fazle Rabbi received the vaccines on Friday. Also read: Second consignment of Sinopharm vaccine arrives Vaccination drive may resume from Saturday or Sunday at Chattogram Medical College and Hospital (CMCH), if the government directs, said the Civil Surgeon. This time there will be only one center for vaccination in every district except the capital Dhaka. The vaccination drive will be conducted at a medical college hospital in a district where there is a medical college hospital, and at a general hospital in a district where there is no medical college hospital. Besides, health workers and police personnel, students of government and private medical and dental colleges, students of government nursing and midwifery, students of dormitory halls of government universities, officers and employees working on important national projects, expatriate workers, cleaners, those who engaged in burial of bodies and who were excluded from vaccination before and citizens of other countries who are working here will be vaccinated on a priority basis. Meanwhile, on Friday afternoon, while exchanging views with local people's representatives at his residence in Garpara, Manikganj, Health and Family Welfare Minister Zahid Malek said the country has not yet fully started the vaccination drive. The minister said, "We hope to get vaccinated soon. We will get the vaccine from China and Russia. We will also get vaccines from the agreement with India which have not been delivered yet." He further said, "Immediately after vaccination a person is not protected, it takes a month." Also read: Sinopharm begins shipment of its vaccine to Bangladesh The health minister also said Delta variant has also spread in our country. Its transmission capacity is 50 percent higher. "So, this is the time we have to follow the health protocols, we have to protect ourselves, we have to protect the family, we have to protect the country," he added. The government halted administering the first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine on April 26 considering the dwindling stock of its jabs. Also, registration for the Covid-19 vaccination remained suspended amid uncertainty over the availability of promised vaccine doses from India's Serum Institute. However, the mass vaccination of Covid-19 is expected to resume in July next as the government is making all-out efforts to collect vaccines, said Principal Secretary Dr Ahmad Kaikaus Thursday. "The government has allotted a fund of Tk14,000 crore for the procurement of vaccines as it’s an all-out effort to ensure Covid jabs for all." The government has so far approved the emergency use of Oxford-AstraZeneca, Sinopharm (China), Sputnik-V (Russia), Pfizer-BioNTech (USA/Germany) and Crona Vac (China) vaccines.