Govt to buy 30m vaccine doses for Tk1271.55cr from India.

A two-million-dose consignment of gift vaccine from Delhi arrived in Dhaka Thursday to herald the buy of 30 million from India as the Banglsdesh government allocated the same day Tk 1271.55 crore for the purchase to combat the pandemic coronavirus. The COVID-19 vaccine will be procured from Serum Institute of India "on emergency state purpose through Direct Procurement Method (DPM) at a cost of Tk 1,271.55 crore to effectively deal with this pandemic", said an official announcement. A tripartite deal between the two government and a local private firm of Bangladesh as the distributor has already been signed for the vaccine procurement. And reports say nearly Tk 600 crore has been disbursed to the SII in advance. The approval came from a virtual meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Government Purchase (CCGP) with Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal in the chair. Briefing reporters virtually after the meeting, Kamal said the day's meeting approved a total of eight proposals involving an overall cost of around Tk 2,059.42 crore. 'Of the total cost, he said, around Tk 1,870.82 crore will come from the government of Bangladesh portion while around Tk 188.60 crore from the local banking sources as loan.' He said the health services division will procure this Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine, manufactured at the Indian institute. The finance minister said, "It's a good thing that the Indian vaccines have already started arriving in the country and subsequently the country's people will be vaccinated." India Thursday formally handed over 20 lakh doses of Covishield (Oxford- AstraZeneca's Covid-19 vaccine manufactured by Serum Institute of India) as 'gift' to Bangladesh at a ceremony in State Guesthouse Padma in Dhaka. Kamal said once all eligible people of the country are vaccinated, they would feel good and thus they would be able to give their "utmost efforts towards economic progress of the country". Answering a question, the finance minister said, 'Considering my age, I will definitely take that vaccine which will be available at the earliest.' Replying to another question, he said if the private companies are allowed to import vaccines, then those would have to arrange their own financing. Briefing reporters also in digital platform, Additional Secretary of the Cabinet Division Dr Abu Saleh Mostafa Kamal said that the meeting approved three separate proposals for procuring a total of 85,000 metric tonnes of fertilizer from different sources. He said...