Chinese vaccine R&D companies are working with Bangladeshi partners for future vaccine co-producing in Bangladesh, said the deputy chief of mission of the Chinese embassy in Dhaka.
Hualong Yan in a facebook post said China so far has provided vaccines to nearly 100 countries, and will provide the first batch of 10 million doses of vaccines to COVAX.
“Chinese vaccines are the first batch of vaccines obtained by many developing countries. China has carried out joint research and development and cooperative production with many developing countries, and supported relevant companies to cooperate with foreign parties in conducting the phase III clinical trials,” he said.
“Chinese vaccines, of which the safety and effectiveness widely recognized, have gained a good reputation in the international community.”
Bangladesh is buying China’s Sinopharm vaccine for mass inoculation along with other jabs.
The government has also given approval for the emergency use of China’s Sinovac.
The local pharmaceutical companies are in talks with China and Russia for the co-production of the vaccines in the country as the government targets to inoculate 80 percent of about 17 crore people.
The Incepta Pharmaceuticals Limited is the local agent of Sinovac in Bangladesh. The Chinese company wants to jointly produce the vaccine with them.
However, the government is also in talks to buy vaccines from Sinovac to ensure immunization of the country's large population.
Bangladesh has already signed an agreement with China's Sinopharm to buy 15 million vaccines.
The first consignment of 2 million vaccines arrived in Dhaka on Saturday.
China gave 1.1 million Sinopharm vaccines to Bangladesh as a gift.
Meanwhile, the government is going to reopen the online registration process for Covid-19 vaccination for the mass people lowering the age limit.
From Thursday, people at the age of 35 and above would be able to register for vaccination.
The decision came as the new cases continued to rise in Bangladesh.
According to the Directorate General of Health Services bulletin, 11,525 more people were diagnosed with the viral disease in the last 24 hours till 8am on Tuesday.
This is for the first time the country reported over 10,000 daily cases a day.
The highest ever of 36,631 samples were tested across the country, registering a positivity rate of 31.46 percent which is also the highest in several months.
The government is enforcing a countrywide strict lockdown closing all offices and educational institutes.
