Facing a scarcity of vaccines, Bangladesh has reached out to India and the US to produce surplus AstraZeneca vaccines to Dhaka.
Sources stated Bangladesh Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen on Tuesday telephoned Foreign Minister S Jaishankar and requested for AstraZeneca’s vaccines because the nation confronted a scarcity and was unable to offer a second dose to its residents.
Sources stated Dhaka has reached Washington for vaccines by diplomatic channels in addition to the Bangladesh-American group within the US.
This comes a day after US President Joe Biden introduced Monday that the US would start transport 20 million doses of Pfizer-BioNotech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson’s Kovid-19 vaccines by the tip of June, which is predicted to reach in June. By the tip there will likely be 60 million photographs in unspecified nations. AstraZeneca vaccines which have already been pledged for distribution are topic to authorization by the drug regulator.
Bangladesh, which carried out the nationwide lockout, has seen greater than 7.8 lakh Kovid-19 circumstances, and to this point has induced greater than 12,000 deaths. The nation’s efforts to vaccinate its individuals have been overshadowed by the shortcoming to produce extra vaccines as a result of second increase in India and the inauguration of vaccination for all adults in India.
The Serum Institute of India (SII) was presupposed to ship 50 lakh doses a month to Bangladesh in a six-month interval beginning in January. SII delivered the primary 5 million doses as per the deal, however solely 20 lakh in February. No different shipments have been made since then.
This yr, the nation goes to get a dose of 68 million vaccines from the worldwide alliance Covax. The coalition had earlier stated that Bangladesh would obtain 1.27 crore doses between May and June, however the provide is just not but in place.
While Dhaka has made the primary such request from India, it isn’t alone. Nepal, Sri Lanka and Maldives are additionally unable to acquire vaccines after India shut down provides to fulfill native wants.
UNICEF has stated that the scenario in India is making a disaster in neighboring nations.
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With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
