Govt approves purchase of 6 crore more doses of Sinopharm vaccine  

The government has approved a proposal to purchase six crore more doses of Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine from China.

The approval was given at the meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Government Purchase today, said Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal.

Briefing reporters after the meeting virtually, the finance minister said that following the proposal placed by the Health Services Division, the CCGP meeting today gave endorsement to the proposal.

Kamal said that the government aims to vaccinate a total of around 13.82 crore people for which there is a need for around 27.64 crore doses of COVID-19 vaccines.

He said the government has currently around 2.55 crore doses of vaccines while the rest would have to be collected in phases.

Answering to a question, he said that the price of the Sinopharm vaccines did not increase compared to the past while negotiation is on to collect the rest of the required doses of vaccines from various sources.

Joining the briefing on virtual platform, Cabinet Division Additional Secretary Md Shamsul Arefin said that the government is expecting to receive these vaccines by November this year.

The government earlier paid China for 1.5 crore doses of Sinopharm vaccine. Of these 70 lakh doses already arrive here.

Besides, 17 lakh more doses of Sinopharm reached here as part of Covax facility and China gifted 11 lakh doses of the vaccine to Bangladesh.

Sinopharm vaccine is currently being administered at union level across the country.