March 29, 2024, 5:14 pm


Staff Correspondent

Published:
2021-06-06 18:55:53 BdST

Bangladesh approves China’s Sinovac Covid-19 vaccine


The Government of Bangladesh has approved the Sinovac-CoronaVac Covid-19 vaccine, produced by China's Sinovac Life Sciences Limited, for emergency use in the country.

Major General Md Mahbubur Rahman, the director-general of DGDA, signed the approval on Sunday.

Incepta Vaccine Limited, a sister concern of Incepta Pharmaceuticals, will distribute the vaccine in Bangladesh.

Incepta earlier applied on behalf of Sinovac for the approval of the vaccine's emergency use. Based on the application, the Directorate General of Drug Administration (DGDA) approved the use on June 3, said the DGDA.

People over 18 years of age will have to take two doses of the Sinovac vaccine with an interval of two to four weeks.

The doses will require to be preserved at a temperature between 2 and 8 degrees Celsius.

The World Health Organization (WHO) on June 1 validated the Sinovac-CoronaVac vaccine for emergency use, giving countries, funders, procuring agencies and communities "assurance that it meets international standards for safety, efficacy and manufacturing", it said in a statement.

In May, Sinopharm, the parent company of Sinovac, became the first Chinese vaccine to be approved by the WHO.

Sinovac's CoronaVac is the fifth Covid vaccine to receive Emergency Use Authorization (EUA), after vaccines by Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, and the AstraZeneca jab being produced in India, South Korea and the EU.

On Saturday, Hualong Yan, the minister counsellor of the Chinese Embassy in Bangladesh, said China was sending another 6,00,000 doses of Sinopharm vaccine to Bangladesh as a gift by June 13.

Bangladesh inked a deal with the Serum Institute of India last year for three crore doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine. Fifty lakh doses were scheduled to be delivered each month between January and June this year. However, only 70 lakh doses arrived so far.

Serum stopped providing vaccine when the Indian government imposed an embargo on its export.

Bangladesh launched its countrywide inoculation drive on February 7 but Serum’s decision to stop vaccine export forced the South Asian country to suspend giving out the first dose since April 26.

Currently, registration for the vaccine is also suspended. So far, 58,20,015 people have received the first dose while 43,03,146 got their second jab, pushing the government to explore alternative sources for Covid vaccines.

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