Bangladesh set to get 24 crore vaccines by March-April: Momen

Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen today sounded hopeful regarding collection of Covid-19 vaccines, saying that Bangladesh is on track to get 24 crore doses by March-April next year.

"Vaccine doses are coming under the COVAX facility, as gifts and from other sources," the Foreign Minister told reporters on the sidelines of the Fifth International Conference on Inclusive Business, organised by Dutch-Bangla Chamber of Commerce & Industry (DBCCI) in Dhaka.

Dr Momen said that Bangladesh needs 26 crore vaccine doses and some would be produced at home. "However, there is no update on vaccine cooperation with Russia due to the Covid-19 situation there."

Dr Momen said that half of the 16 crore people are young, and 2.22 crore people have already been vaccinated.

"Despite significant vaccination here, the United Kingdom kept Bangladesh in the red list which is very unfortunate," he said.

Earlier, Dr Momen reiterated Bangladesh's call to be removed from the red list, terming the British government's decision "unfair and discriminatory".

Referring to more than 7,000 British-Bangladeshis currently stranded in Bangladesh, Dr Momen said the UK government is doing disservice to its own citizens.

"The UK government gave an argument that the vaccination rate is low in Bangladesh, but UK is allowing people from other countries with lower vaccination rate," he added.