The first consignment of the coronavirus-resistant vaccine Pfizer BioNtech is arriving in Bangladesh from Covax on Sunday (May 30). Member Secretary of the Health Directorate Vaccine Deployment Committee Shamsul Haque has confirmed this information. "One lakh 720 doses of Pfizer vaccine will arrive in the country on a Qatar Airlines flight at 11:20 pm on Sunday night," he said.
He added, "It is unknown at this time how, when and whom this vaccine will be inoculated. The National Committee for Immunization will make the final decision.
Referring to Health Minister Zahid Malek’s speech on May 19, Maidul Islam, a public relations officer at the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, said it had been confirmed that at least 160,000 Pfizer vaccines would be sent to Bangladesh from GAVI’s Covax facility on June 2.
Pfizer's vaccine comes from the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI), an international platform designed to ensure immunization in poor countries. GAVI, which has been instrumental in saving the lives of children in poor countries from deadly and contagious diseases has taken the initiative to vaccinate 92 low- and middle-income countries around the world against coronavirus. The international platform Covax has been set up to ensure that poor countries receive vaccinations.
The full version of Covax is the Covid-19 Vaccines Global Access Facility. In addition to the World Health Organization (WHO), the initiative is accompanied by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovation and the charity Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI). The goal of the initiative is to encourage governments to distribute vaccines to high-risk countries, regardless of whether they are rich or poor.
Bangladesh plans to bring more than 13 crore people under the vaccination program to combat coronavirus infection. Bangladesh is hoping to get 6 crore 80 lakh doses of vaccine from Covax.