DHAKA, Aug 14 (NNN-BSS) – To strengthen its campaign against the alarming spike in the COVID-19 spread in the country, Bangladesh planned to sign an agreement with China, for vaccine co-production, reported Pakistani daily The Nation, citing Bangladeshi Foreign Minister, AK Abdul Momen.
The agreement would be signed very soon and the co-production will start in a few weeks, the foreign minster was quoted as saying in a recent report.
Earlier on Tuesday, Minister-Counsellor of the Chinese Embassy in Dhaka, Yan Hualong confirmed in a Facebook post the planned cooperation between the two countries.
“We shall soon be coming for vaccine co-producing,” said Yan.
Bangladesh’s Health Ministry also confirmed that 1.7 million Chinese Sinopharm vaccines, under the UN’s COVAX facility, has arrived in Dhaka.
On Wednesday, Bangladeshi Finance Minister, AHM Mustafa Kamal, told media, the government needs around 276 million vaccine doses, to achieve its target to inoculate over 138 million people.
Bangladesh has so far fully vaccinated only five million people, while 15 million people have taken the first dose of the two-jab vaccines, the paper reported.
Bangladesh registered 1.4 million COVID-19 cases, with over 23,000 deaths and more than 1.2 million recoveries.– NNN-BSS
