Sinopharm Vaccines: Air force plane to bring 5 lakh doses today

A transport aircraft of Bangladesh Air Force will bring five lakh doses of Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine from China today.

A C-130J transport aircraft left for China at 8:12am yesterday to carry the jabs to Bangladesh, according to a press release issued by the Inter Services Public Relations Directorate (ISPR).

Earlier on Monday, Li Jiming, Chinese ambassador to Bangladesh, announced that five lakh doses of the vaccine would arrive in Bangladesh today.

The vaccine doses that the Chinese government has given Bangladesh as gift will be administered to eligible citizens as the first dose, a number of health officials told this newspaper.

Initially, 1,000 people will be given the jabs and then the vaccine will be administered on a mass scale.

Seeking anonymity, a top official at the Directorate General of Health Services said these vaccine doses will allow the authorities to resume administering the first dose that was suspended on April 26 due to a shortage of vaccines.

The Directorate General of Drug Administration recently authorised the emergency use of Sinopharm vaccine.

The vaccine, developed by Beijing Biological Products Institute, a unit of Sinopharm subsidiary China National Biotec Group, has an estimated efficacy of 79% for all age groups. Sinopharm has supplied over 200 million doses at home and abroad.

This is the first Chinese Covid vaccine that has been approved by The World Health Organization.

The vaccine has already been administered to millions of people in China and elsewhere. Apart from China, the UAE, Bahrain, Egypt, Pakistan and several other countries are using it.