Health and Family Welfare Minister Zahid Maleque yesterday said the country has a target to vaccinate 12 doses of vaccine by January, 2022 as the government intensified its efforts to collect required quantity of COVID-19 jabs.
“We have so far given 70 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine… we would be able to vaccinate 12 crore doses of vaccine by January next year,” he told the inaugural function of DBL Pharmaceuticals Ltd at Kashimpur in Gazipur, an official release said.
Dr. Md Habibe Millat, MP, Director General of Directorate General of Drug Administration (DGDA) Major General Mahabubur Rahman and Chairman of DBL Pharmaceuticals Ltd Abdul Wahed, among others, addressed the function.
Under the directive of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, all people of the country will be given COVID-19 vaccines, the health minister said, adding that the government has purchased 21 crore doses of COVID-19 vaccines.
“Bangladesh will get three crore vaccines this month and we hoped that we will get required quantity of coronavirus jabs in phases,” he added.
“Success of Bangladesh to control coronavirus has been lauded globally,” he added.
Maleque said there is no scarcity of pharmaceutical products during the COVID-19 pandemic in the country. Bangladesh pharmaceutical companies earned huge foreign currency through exports pharmaceutical products to different countries after meeting domestic demands, he added.
The health ministry sources said Bangladesh set a target to vaccinate the country’s 80 percent population by 2022 under an accelerated inoculation campaign, expecting receipt of required COVID-19 jabs within estimated timeline.
Bangladesh has so far approved eight COVID-19 vaccines to control the deadly disease.
The approved COVID-19 vaccines are from Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, CoronaVac, Pfizer, Covishield, Sputnik V, AstraZeneca and Sinopharm.
