Govt to buy 1.5cr Sinopharm shots at lower price

The cabinet committee on public procurement has approved a proposal to buy 1.5 crore Covid-19 vaccine doses from the Chinese company Sinopharm at lower prices than before.

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal has said the price of each dose will not be revealed in the interest of the state.

After the cabinet committee's virtual meeting on Wednesday, he said the vaccines would be purchased in line with the established procedures, including the law ministry's vetting.

He said the health ministry could say when the doses would arrive in Bangladesh.

On 27 May, the cabinet committee approved in principle the procurement of 1.5 crore Sinopharm doses.

Additional Secretary of the Cabinet Division Shahida Akhter told reporters at the time that the committee had approved to pay $10 for each dose.

She said various countries, including Sri Lanka and Indonesia, had put pressure on China after prices had been disclosed, claiming the latter had sold vaccines to them at higher prices.

According to the previous agreement, Sinopharm was supposed to supply 1.5 crore doses to Bangladesh in June, July, and August – 50 lakh shots per month.

Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen said at the time vaccine procurement had been delayed as Bangladesh had disclosed the prices.

The cabinet committee on Wednesday also approved the purchase of additional doses, if required, to deal with emergency Covid-19 situations.

Shamsul Arefin, additional secretary of the Cabinet Division, said Sinopharm was supposed to supply 1.5 crore doses as per the previous deal.

"Of those, China has already given 20 lakh doses as gifts. That is why another 20 lakh doses have been added to the contract."

The Chinese government had given 11 lakh Sinopharm doses as gifts before the contract to buy vaccines was signed.

Twenty lakh Sinopharm doses arrived in the country in two shipments last week, and the government said those were part of the purchased lots.

Present vaccine situation

So far, 1.6 crore doses have arrived in the country.

Of them, 1.03 crore Oxford-AstraZeneca doses came from the Serum Institute of India, 31 lakh Sinopharm doses from China, 25 lakh Moderna doses from the US through Covax, and 1.06 lakh Pfizer doses.

Eighty lakh people can be vaccinated with these doses.

The health directorate said it wants to immunise as many people as possible immediately as the foreign minister had said the country would receive more than 75 lakh shots from multiple sources soon.

"More than 30 lakh Moderna doses are being sent to Bangladesh under Covax. The shipment is ready, as confirmed by our mission in Geneva," said the foreign minister on Tuesday.

Besides, Japan will send 29 lakh AstraZeneca doses under the Covax initiative.

The foreign minister also said China would give Bangladesh another 10 lakh Sinopharm doses on 15 July in addition to the commercial purchase agreement.

Moreover, 10 lakh doses will arrive from the European Union and a further 620,000 doses under the Covax facility will come in August.

Earlier, the health minister told the media the government had already signed a deal with Russia to purchase vaccines.

He said a large number of vaccines would arrive at the end of July or in early August.

Other approved proposals

The finance minister on Wednesday said the cabinet committee had approved four more proposals.

Those include procuring 33.6 thousand MMBTU of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from a Swiss company at Tk436 crore and appointing an Indian joint venture as a consultant in the Bogura-Sirajganj dual-gauge rail track project at Tk97.56 crore.