Vaccination with Pfizer, Sinopharm jabs begins on June 19

Health and Family Welfare Minister Zahid Maleque said inoculation with Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and Chinese Sinopharm vaccine would begin from June 19.

“Some more vaccines (Pfizer and Sinopharm) have come to our hand. The first dose of vaccination will resume from June 19. The vaccines will be administered to vaccine seekers who have already registered online,” he said.

The health minister came up with the information while speaking at a commemoration programme at Bangladesh College of Physicians and Surgeons (BCPS) auditorium in the capital on Monday.

Earlier, talking to reporters at Infectious Diseases Hospital (IDH) in the capital at noon, Prof Dr ABM Khurshid Alam, director general of Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), said that the administration of the Pfizer and Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine will resume from next week.

Earlier, the government has already received 11 lakh Sinopharm vaccine doses as a gift from the Chinese government.

Of those, 6 lakh shots arrived in the country from China on Sunday.

On May 12, Bangladesh received a gift of 5 lakh Sinopharm vaccine doses from China.

On 31 May, a consignment of 1,00,620 doses of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine reached Dhaka, via the international vaccine alliance Gavi under its worldwide vaccination initiative Covax.

On April 25 last, the government suspended the administering of the first dose with Oxford-AstraZeneca (Covishield) vaccine after India halted the export of the jab in March amid a massive rise in coronavirus infections in the neighbouring country.

The government administered the Sinopharm vaccine to medical students as pilot project.

On May 25, about 500 students from four medical colleges were administered the vaccine on an experimental basis. Later, Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) administered the Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine to more than 450 Chinese citizens.

The Directorate General of Drug Administration (DGDA) on April 29 gave emergency use authorisation to the Sinopharm vaccine in Bangladesh.

On May 27, the DGDA approved the Pfizer vaccine for emergency use in Bangladesh, removing all legal barriers to the import and use of this vaccine.