The government has drawn up a plan to roll out Covid-19 vaccines in Bangladesh, once available in the world, with the assurances of getting 100 million doses by 2021 which can cover most of the over 160 million population in the country.

Dr Shamsul Haque Mridha, director of Expanded Programme for Immunization (EPI), said on Wednesday that they are expecting to receive around 68 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine from the GAVI – the global alliance for vaccine – by 2021.

He told reporters that they are working on finalising the ‘National Vaccine Deployment Plan’.

The government earlier signed a deal to buy 30 million doses of Oxford vaccine from India's Serum Institute via Beximco Pharmaceuticals Ltd once approved by the WHO.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s special assistant Barrister Shah Ali Farhad in a facebook post said Bangladesh is negotiating with almost all countries and companies attempting Covid-19 vaccine development.

“Nine organisations in the world are purportedly in the final stages of producing Covid-19 vaccines, and Bangladesh is in touch with at least six of them,” he said while giving an update.

He, however, said the government is not thinking about procuring the vaccines of Pfizer-Biontech/Moderna as those are not suitable for Bangladesh due to temperature-related storage and distribution issues.

“The government has already set priorities for the distribution of vaccine doses in the first phase once those will be collected: health professionals, senior citizens (over-60), frontline administrative, and law enforcement officials.

“The government has already started compiling a list of senior citizens at the ward levels using the National Identity Card database. The government has already collected the list of all public and law enforcement officials via the data sent by all Civil Surgeons. Those who will be selected for vaccine administration will be provided with a receipt/card, which will state the place and date of administration. In phases all segments of the population will be covered,” he wrote.

All those developments follow the interim data from a large clinical trial of Oxford University and AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine candidate that suggests it may be up to 90 percent efficacious when delivered using a halved first dose, followed by a full second dose.

By using less vaccine for the first doses, this regimen potentially means more people could be vaccinated sooner.

GAVI has already secured access to 200 million doses of the vaccine, with the option to secure several times more. Some of the initial doses could be available by the end of 2020, subject to the vaccine obtaining full licensure or WHO prequalification, according to the Geneva-based alliance.

Bangladesh will get those doses under the COVAX initiative which is co-led by Gavi, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and WHO.

Its aim is to accelerate the development and manufacture of COVID-19 vaccines, and to guarantee fair and equitable access for every country in the world.

Dr Shamsul Haque Mridha said the cost for each shot of vaccine from GAVI arrangement has been estimated at $1.62 to $2.

He said Bangladesh earlier on July 9 sent an official Expression of Interest (EOI) to Gavi. Later, on Sep 18, Gavi sent a letter to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina officially announcing Bangladesh's eligibility to receive Covid-19 vaccine.

According to Barrister Farhad, the Ministry of Finance has already approved 635 Crore and 77 Lakhs Taka (approximately $75 million) as half payment in advance for SII.

The Health Ministry has already started preparing the proposal for a Tk318 Crore (approximately $37.4 million) for overall management of cold chain, vaccine storage and distribution, and training of vaccine administrators, among others.

Tk100 Crore (approximately USD 11.7 million) of this project is being borne by the government, while the rest is expected to come from development partners.

The Finance Ministry has already approved funding for the government’s share of costs in the project.