The health authorities have approved Sinovac Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use in Bangladesh.
The Directorate General of Drug Administration (DGDA) announced the approval through a press release on Sunday.
According to DGDA, the vaccine can be administered among people aged 18 and above. The two-dose vaccine will be inoculated within two to four weeks of the first jab. The vaccine's preservation temperature ranges between 2°C and 8°C.
The DGDA approved the Sinovac as the fifth Covid-19 vaccine.
It approved Pfizer-BioNTech on May 27, China's Sinopharm on April 29, Russia's Sputnik V on April 27 and Covishield from neighbouring India on January 7.
Bangladesh started its vaccination program across the country on February 7 by administering Covishield, the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine manufactured by Serum Institute of India (SII).
On April 25, the government suspended administering the first dose of the Covishield, just a day after India said no more vaccine doses would be shipped to Bangladesh anytime soon.
As the SII could not be able to provide the doses of vaccine they promised, a good number of people are waiting for their second jabs.
However, on June 1, Bangladesh received the first consignment of 100,620 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine.
Meanwhile, China handed over 500,000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine to Bangladesh as a special gift on May 12. Beijing has said that it will send another 600,000 doses of the vaccine to Dhaka.
Bangladesh started inoculating the vaccine among medical college students on Tuesday. The Health Services Division of the ministry will procure a total of 15 million Sinopharm shots in the next three months — June, July and August.
The country is also negotiating with Russia to get their Sputnik V vaccine.
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