Would Chinese, Russian Vaccines Come?

In the Last March, there was talk of buying about 15 million vaccines from China's Sinopharm and 10 million from Russia's Sputnik-V. Bangladesh and Russia have not yet decided on some issues, including the number of vaccines and the schedule for receiving vaccines. It is doubtful when the rest of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine will come from the Serum Institute of India. Now the only hope is the Chinese vaccine.

A number of government officials (involved in talks to collect vaccines from different countries) in Bangladesh have said that the first consignment of vaccines from China Sinopharm could arrive in July.

Earlier, 1.1 million doses of the vaccine came as a gift from the Chinese government. Five lakh doses came on 12 May and 6 lakh doses came on 13 June. A total of five and a half lakh people have been told to be vaccinated in two doses. Medical students are getting those vaccines first. It is learned that 36,000 vaccines have been set aside for Chinese nationals residing in Dhaka and Bangladeshi students studying in various Chinese universities who have been stuck in the country.

In the trial stage, 2,662 people have been vaccinated with the Chinese vaccine. Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) spokesman Nazmul Islam said, “Now medical and nursing students are getting Chinese vaccine. Those who are on the priority list will also get it. But so far we have only 11 lakh vaccines. That vaccine can be given to as many people as possible. ”

Meanwhile, the Coronavirus situation in the country is deteriorating. Both identified patients and death tolls are on the rise. On Friday (June 25), the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) reported 106 coronavirus-related deaths in a single day. 5,869 new patients have been identified. To bring the situation under control, the National Technical Advisory Committee on Covid-19 said last Wednesday (June 23rd) that more than 80 percent of people need to be vaccinated to be completely free from coronavirus.

According to government sources, the government had separate discussions last week on buying vaccines from China and Russia under trade agreements. In addition to buying vaccines from Sinopharm, the government has also held talks with two other Chinese companies, Sinovac and Anui Gifei. Bangladesh will not buy the vaccine from them at the moment as the final stage of vaccination has not been completed. In this situation, the only alternative for Bangladesh to get a quick vaccine is China's Sinopharm.

In this context, the Foreign Minister. Abdul Momen said the coronavirus vaccine is now being used as a diplomatic tool.

Discussions began in the last week of May for the final purchase of 10 million Sputnik-V vaccines from Russia. Although the beginning is quite good, last week's discussion of the second episode has created a kind of doubt about getting the vaccine as per Bangladesh's expectations.

The first and second doses of the Sputnik-V vaccine are not the same. So Bangladesh wants to get the first and second dose together for a certain part of the population. The matter has not been resolved, several officials said. They say Russia will not go into vaccine production unless it signs the Emergency Use Permit (EUA) agreement, which addresses a variety of issues, including the number of vaccines and separately sending of the first and second doses.

According to the Foreign Ministry, Bangladesh wants to buy 20, 30, and 50 lakh vaccines from Russia in three months. But in the two-point discussion, it is clear that they do not have the capacity to produce vaccines in this way according to the needs of Bangladesh. Moreover, they have trade agreements with many countries before Bangladesh. So Russia has started supplying with one or two lakh vaccines and is saying that it will give one crore vaccines to Bangladesh by December this year.

In November last year, Bangladesh signed a tripartite agreement with Beximco Pharma to buy 30 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine from the Serum Institute of India in response to the first outbreak of the coronavirus. After the Serum Institute sent 7 million doses of vaccine in two phases, the export of vaccines stopped and Bangladesh fell into disarray. India imposed a ban on vaccine exports as the coronavirus situation worsened there. As a result, the mass immunization program of Bangladesh, which was launched in February, got a hiccup. To deal with the situation, the government approved the emergency use of Russia's Sputnik-V and China's Sinopharm vaccines in late April and early May, respectively, collect vaccines from alternative sources.

There are still 72 lakh 48 thousand 829 registered people in the country waiting for vaccination. Earlier, a total of 99 lakh 93 thousand 945 doses of Oxford vaccine have been given. Of these, 58 lakh 20 thousand 15 people took the first dose and 41 lakh 73 thousand 930 people took the second dose.

The Ministry of Finance has advised the Chinese company not to pay the entire amount for the purchase of the vaccine. The ministry has promised to give half of the money before consignment and the rest after the vaccine arrives in the country. Besides, the government, not the private sector, has been advised to be the buyer of the vaccine. The finance ministry has given these suggestions in a letter sent to the health ministry on Sunday regarding the purchase and agreement of the vaccine.

When contacted by the concerned officials of the ministry, he said on condition of anonymity that buying the vaccine is a sensitive issue. Care must be taken not to repeat the mistakes we made during the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine. So various suggestions have been made. How much of these suggestions will be accepted is a matter for the Ministry of Health.

Experts have advised all parties to unite so that the issue of buying vaccines from Chinese companies can be solved without any hassle. "We need vaccines," said Prof Syed Abdul Hamid, a professor at the Institute of Health Economics at Dhaka University. ''The Government's position is on ebb as they have failed in the first round. So everyone has to work together to bring the vaccine to China. The arguments and suggestions made by the Ministry of Finance is very logical. The Ministry of Health is also responsible for bringing the vaccine. The Cabinet Division, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry of Health should sit together to make the whole thing easier. Then everything will be easy to solve.''