Dhaka approves Sinopharm jabs

BANGLADESH’S drug regulator said last Thursday (29) it had approved the emergency use of a vaccine developed by an affiliate of China’s Sinopharm, as it scrambles to find alternative sources for Covid-19 inoculations after supplies from India faltered.

Bangladesh’s vaccination drive suffered after its bigger neighbour halted exports of the AstraZeneca shot in response to a record surge in domestic infections. “Hopefully, 500,000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine will arrive in Bangladesh within two weeks,” Mahbubur Rahman, head of the Directorate General of Drug Administration, told reporters. The regulator last week also approved Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine.

Rahman said governmentlevel talks were also ongoing on making Russian and Sinopharm vaccines in Bangladesh. Bangladesh has been relying on the AstraZeneca vaccine so far, and since launching vaccinations in February around 6 million people have been inoculated. It plans to cover about 80 per cent of the country’s 170 million people.

Last week it stopped administering first doses, however, amid uncertainty over shipments from India.

Bangladesh has an agreement with the Serum Institute of India for 30 million doses of AstraZeneca but has received only seven million so far. It received 3.2 million AstraZeneca doses from India as gift.

Bangladesh’s second wave peaked around three weeks ago. Since then, daily infections have fallen by more than half, with 1,739 new cases reported on Tuesday (4), as well as 65 fatalities. There have been 763,682 infections and 11,644 deaths reported since the pandemic began.