DGHS Decision on Purchase of Russian Vaccine, This Week

The government will send a proposal for the purchase of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine after settling on a price rate this week, said Director General of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), Prof Dr ABM Khurshid Alam, on Sunday.

"Russia has provided some information replying to our previous letter" he said, after concluding a meeting at the secretariat.

"We will reply after reviewing the information and a decision will be taken after that. The price is yet to be fixed, and we will send it this week," Alam said.

The country's drug regulator approved the Russian Sputnik V vaccine for emergency use against COVID-19, in April.

Dhaka, facing a second wave of the pandemic, is racing to secure more vaccines after India, its larger neighbour stopped exports of the Oxford-AstraZeneca  shot in response to a record surge in domestic infections.

Talking about the AstraZeneca vaccine, Khurshid Alam said he has no information on the matter and the Serum Institute has yet to say anything about providing more of the vaccine.

1.62 lakh doses of the Pfizer vaccine are also arriving on Sunday night, he said.

Sputnik V is a two-dose vaccine and can be kept at two to eight degrees Celsius.

Russia's Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine gives around 92% protection against Covid-19, reveal late-stage trial results published in The Lancet, reports BBC.

It has also been deemed to be safe and offers complete protection against hospitalisation and death.

But unlike other similar vaccines, the Sputnik jab uses two slightly different versions of the vaccine for the first and second dose, given 21 days apart.

They both target the coronavirus's distinctive "spike", but use different vectors, the neutralised virus that carries the spike to the body.

The idea is that using two different formulas boosts the immune system even more than using the same version twice - and may give longer lasting protection.

Besides proving effective, it is also safe with no serious reactions linked to the vaccine during the trials.

Some side effects to a vaccine are expected but these are usually mild, including a sore arm, tiredness, and a slight temperature.

And there were no deaths or serious illness in the vaccinated group linked to the jab.

The vaccine is being used in a number of other places besides Russia, including Argentina, Palestinian territories, Venezuela, Hungary, UAE, and Iran.

Source: TBS