Bangladesh to administer 12cr doses of Covid vaccines by Jan: Health minister
Three crore doses of Covid-19 vaccine will arrive in the country this month
Health and Family Welfare Minister Zahid Maleque on Sunday said Bangladesh will be able to administer at least 12 crore doses of Covid-19 vaccines by January next.
"There is no shortage of vaccines in the country. The government already has over one crore vaccines in stock. At least six crore doses have already been administered. If this continues, it will be possible to give at least 12 crore doses by January next year," he said while inaugurating the DBL Pharmaceuticals at Gazipur.
He also said 21 crore doses of vaccine have been bought and at least three crore doses will arrive this month.
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The minister also claimed there has been no shortage of medicines throughout the Covid-19 pandemic across the country.
Zahid Maleque said the drug sector of the country exports products to 145 countries.
"After the RMG sector, pharmaceuticals is going to be one of the biggest sources of foreign income in the country. However, we are going to formulate a new drug policy to ensure that there are no adulterated drugs in the country," said the minister.
He further said because of the new policy, no one will be able to increase the drug price in the country's market unnecessarily.
Following the inaugural event, the minister visited different parts of DBL Pharmaceuticals. Member of the Parliament Dr Habib E Millat, Directorate General of Drug Administration (DGDA) Maj Gen Mahbubur Rahman and DBL Pharmaceuticals Chairman Abdul Wahed accompanied him.
4 more die of Covid in 24 hours
Bangladesh reported four more deaths from Covid-19 in the last 24 hours till 8 am Sunday.
Besides, 178 more people tested positive for the virus during the same period.
The current positivity rate was recorded at 1.17% as the health officials tested 15,234 samples across the country.
Bangladesh reported one death and 154 cases on Saturday.
With the latest additions, the death toll reached 27,895 and the case tally climbed to 15,71,013 in the country.
Among the deaths reported yesterday, two were in Dhaka, and one each was in Chattogram and Rajshahi divisions.
