Govt plans to buy vaccine in cash too

Apart from the global vaccine alliance, GAVI, Bangladesh has also planned to collect Covid-19 vaccine through cash payments to other manufacturers, officials have said.

The health ministry at a recent meeting has asked the officials concerned to take steps for buying the vaccine from the possible manufacturers to boost immunity against the deadly virus.

The step was taken amid massive criticisms by the health experts and commoners that the country might fail to get vaccine in time due to lack of proper steps, and if the government tries to get it free of cost.

Officials said the country has already expressed its interest to GAVI to get vaccine and be enlisted as an eligible nation to get it. As a co-financier of GAVI, Bangladesh is also eligible to get vaccine from this alliance.

The GAVI, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) have taken necessary steps through its COVAX Facility to guarantee fair and equitable access of every country irrespective of their financial abilities and geographical locations.

According to officials, Bangladesh is also communicating with the people concerned to make sure that whether a country having low per-capita income would enjoy extra facility in getting the vaccine.

"We have to take immediate steps to buy vaccine in cash apart from getting it from the COVAX Facility," health minister Zahid Maleque was quoted to have told the officials.

Finance minister AHM Mustafa Kamal informed a recent cabinet meeting that in the budget for the current fiscal year, some funds were kept aside for buying vaccine as soon as it is ready for sale.

He also requested the health minister to contact with more than one source to collect the vaccine and to make sure that Bangladesh is not going to be excluded as a candidate for the vaccine.

Until now, two vaccines got approval for limited use, eight are in the large-scale efficacy tests, 13 in expanded safety trials, 21 are in the stage of testing safety and dosage while more than 135 are at pre-clinical stage.

Globally 23.1 million people are tested positive so far of which over 0.8 million died while in Bangladesh 294,598 people tested positive and 3,941 died until Sunday.

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