The United States, Canada and France have donated more Covid-19 shots to Bangladesh to help the government continue the immunisation campaign against the pandemic virus.
The US embassy said on Sunday that Washington donates another 1.78 million Pfizer vaccines to Bangladesh, raising the total amount of donations to 18.5 million.
The Canadian High Commission said 2.2 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine landed in Bangladesh on Sunday, as part of contributions from Canada via Covax which is a WHO-led initiative.
The government of France has donated 1,197,600 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to Bangladesh under the Covax arrangement as “a gesture of solidarity to the friendly country’s fight against Covid-19 pandemic”.
This is in addition to a consignment of 2.06 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine French gave to Bangladesh on November 29 through the Covax facility.
“The government of France has made the sharing of COVID-19 vaccines one of its priorities, in solidarity with the countries hit by the pandemic and in order to help accelerate vaccination coverage on a global scale,” the embassy in Dhaka.
Canadian High Commissioner Benoit Préfontaine said: “Canada’s commitment to ensuring everyone everywhere has access to these lifesaving vaccines is how we will end this pandemic, together. Through vaccine sharing, the relations between Canada -Bangladesh will further be strengthened.”
About the US donation, the embassy said “this timely U.S. Pfizer vaccine donation enables Bangladesh to expand its immunization drive to youth ages 12 and up across the country. U.S. government COVID-19 assistance to Bangladesh now exceeds $121 million.”
With this shipment, the American people have now donated a total of 18.5 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to Bangladesh. The new doses help the government of Bangladesh expand Pfizer COVID-19 vaccinations for young people ages 12 and up, reaching all 64 districts across the country.
The United States has been supporting Bangladesh's national COVID-19 vaccination campaign. This includes training nearly 7,000 healthcare professionals to safely administer vaccines, donating cold-chain freezer trucks, and providing freezers and other equipment for health facilities to properly store and transport COVID-19 vaccines across the country.
“We are proud to donate another shipment of Pfizer vaccines and help Bangladesh keep the momentum in getting as many people vaccinated as possible, especially youth. The United States will continue to donate millions more doses of Pfizer vaccines and stand together with Bangladesh in its aim to vaccinate 40 percent of the country’s eligible population by the end of this year,” said Ambassador Earl Miller.
The ongoing donations of Pfizer vaccines are part of the broader commitment by the United States to lead the global COVID-19 response by providing one billion doses of the Pfizer vaccine around the world—free of charge—through 2022.
The U.S. government has also contributed over $121 million in COVID-19-related assistance to Bangladesh. This assistance has saved lives through vaccination support; improved COVID-19 testing; infection and prevention control; treatment; and supply chain and logistics management systems.
