Cabinet Secretary Khandker Anwarul Islam announced the resolution after a cabinet assembly chaired by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in Dhaka on Wednesday.
The government has set aside 6 billion Tk to buy the vaccines, which would not be released in the top position while global struggles to involve the coronavirus pandemic.
The government plans to supply the poor, if the entire population, with loose vaccines, the secretary said.
The new coronavirus has killed more than one million people in the largest pandemic in a century and the official death toll in Bangladesh has exceeded 5,000.
Hopelessly for COVID-19, the disease caused by coronavirus, the world is anxiously waiting for a vaccine to end the epidemic.
Russia and China have begun administering vaccines to their population. Several candidate vaccines are in the latter stages of other countries, but none have obtained WHO approval.
The Health Services Division informed the closet of the maximum number of recent efforts to collect vaccines at Wednesday’s meeting.
Clinical trials are underway with 46 vaccine applicants, while 91 are in preclinical trials, Anwarul said.
The Department of Health has been in communications with the vaccine from the beginning, he said.
“We have established a baseline that we will not settle for a vaccine that is not identified through WHO,” he said.
“Our Ministry of Health, our departments and our pharmaceutical corporations are communicating with other countries for production here following this baseline,” he added.
THE CAREER OF VACCINES
GAVI, the global public-private vaccine alliance, accepted Bangladesh’s application for COVID-19 vaccines after Hasina sent a video message to the 2020 World Vaccine Summit in London on 4 June, Anwarul said.
It has approved the application for icddr, b for clinical trials of an experimental vaccine developed through Sinovac from China.
Trials in Bangladesh will create an opportunity to download the vaccine at a lower price and with precedence, the secretary said.
One or more pharmaceutical corporations will introduce the vaccine once it has passed its test, he added.
In proposing to Russia’s vaccine candidate, he said the country had presented Bangladesh with the generation step to produce the vaccine, but is awaiting WHO approval.
The Health Services Division is concerned about a test procedure for the experimental vaccine developed through Bharat Biotech of India, which has provided education to 36 other people and guidance has already begun, the secretary said.
Two bangladeshi pharmacists have expressed interest in generating a candidate vaccine developed through Sanofi from France and GSK from Belgium, he added.
VACCINE ASSIGNMENT
The government has allocated Tk 6 billion in the national budget to purchase COVID-19 vaccines as part of a project, the cabinet secretary said.
Finance Secretary Abdur Rouf Talukder trusted the budget closet if not enough foreign currency would be available for vaccines.
Anwarul noted that Hasina had talked about the allocation when the budget was approved in parliament.
He ignored the statement that he has wasted opportunities to download loose vaccines.
“We want to perceive that there is no immediate possibility of getting loose vaccines when a world festival takes place. Free vaccines can reach GAVI, but it will take time,” he said.
WHEN DO VACCINES ARRIVE?
The secretary of the closet who no one can say for sure when an effective vaccine will come to market.
Referring to a list drawn up through the government, he stated that it would take at least April-June 2021 for a vaccine to become available.
“But we have maintained communications with everyone [to access] whether a vaccine is a success before this period,” he added.
The government also wants to address some technical problems, one of which is that some vaccines will need to be stored and transported to less than 80 degrees Celsius.
“It’s very complicated for a country like ours. Those that can be stored between 2 and 8 degrees Celsius are suitable for us,” Anwarul said.
NOT FREE FOR EVERYONE
The government will deliver the loose vaccine to everyone.
But it will give the vaccines to a giant component of the population that will not be able to vaccines, the secretary said.
“The value has still been set. Let’s see what happens,” he said.
Uncertainty has involved the demands of candidates who evolved through China’s Sinovac after they refused to finance, according to media reports.
“There is nothing uncertain. They’re for funds. We’re discussing it,” Anwarul said.
“We are reviewing whether your proposal is rational and whether the investment will be made through government or the personal sector,” he added.