Procurement of 60 m Sinopharm doses gets nod

The Cabinet Committee on Public Purchase on Wednesday approved a proposal to procure 60 million doses of Sinopharm vaccine.

Dhaka, Aug 11 :  The Cabinet Committee on Public Purchase on Wednesday approved a proposal of the Health Service Division to procure 60 million doses of Chinese Sinopharm vaccine as the government is trying to gear up its nationwide vaccination drive.

According to officials, the vaccine doses will arrive in the country by November this year.

But the price of the vaccine doses was not disclosed as there is a non-disclosure agreement with China in this regard, they said.  

“We hope the vaccine doses will reach the country by November this year. Since we’ve a non-disclosure agreement, we can’t disclose the price,” Shamsul Arefin, additional secretary of the Cabinet Division, told reporters while briefing them on the issue. 

The virtual meeting, chaired by Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal, also approved nine other procurement proposals of different ministries. 

The finance minister said, “We’ve calculated that we need to vaccinate some 13.82 crore people. So, we have to buy 27.65 crore vaccine doses. We’ve 2.55 crore vaccine doses in our hands and the remaining amounts need to be collected.”  

Earlier, Bangladesh purchased 15 million doses of Sinopharm Covid vaccine from China at a rate lower than what was set in an earlier deal.  

Bangladesh earlier received two million doses of vaccine as a gift from China.

On May 27 this year, the same committee approved the procurement of the same Chinese jabs at $10 per dose.

China was then upset by the disclosure of the price saying it was a breach of a non-disclosure clause agreed by the two governments, reports UNB.