UNB :
Bangladesh will get some 10.8 lakh doses of AstraZeneca vaccine soon under COVAX facility.
These AstraZeneca vaccine doses have been allocated from the COVAX supply, said Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen on Friday.
He said the COVAX programme has not mentioned the source of this supply of AstraZeneca vaccine doses to Bangladesh.
The AstraZeneca vaccine doses will arrive soon, Dr Momen said.
Bangladesh Ambassador to the US conveyed the development to the Foreign Minister.
Bangladesh earlier sought 2 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine from the US for addressing Bangladesh’s immediate needs but the US is yet to reply to that particular request.
Dr Momen said the US is only giving assurances, and he received a letter from the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday which he says a very good in a sense.
He, however, said the US did not mention how many vaccine doses they will provide to Bangladesh and when.
Bangladesh needs at least 15 lakh doses of AstraZeneca immediately.
The US reportedly wants to give Moderna and Pfizer vaccines for Bangladesh.
The Foreign Minister said they want both the Rohingyas and affected local communities to be vaccinated if Bangladesh get a special allocation.
“Local communities who are affected in many ways for Rohingyas will not accept it if vaccine doses are provided only for Rohingyas,” he said.
Dr Momen said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been saying from day one that vaccine should be a public good and there should be no discrimination.
He said it will not be fair if anyone suggests vaccinating Rohingyas alone depriving the host community of it. “We don’t discriminate.”
Bangladesh is hosting over 1.1 million Rohingyas in Cox’s Bazar district and Bhasan Char island.
On Thursday, US President Joe Biden announced
that the United States will donate half a billion new Pfizer vaccines to 92 low- and lower middle-income countries.
“These Pfizer vaccines will save millions of lives around the world, and be produced through the power of American manufacturing,” he tweeted.
On June 3, the White House announced its plan to share vaccines directly with Bangladesh as part of a framework to provide 80 million US vaccine doses globally by the end of the month. This includes 7 million doses destined for Asia.
