Nepal, Bangladesh scramble to secure COVID-19

Nepal/Bangladesh, (Ruters), 19 May 2021 - Nepal and Bangladesh are making frantic diplomatic efforts to secure COVID-19 vaccines to prop up their faltering inoculation drives as their stocks run out and supply prospects have become clouded by a prolonged Indian curb on vaccine exports.

Bangladesh said it urgently needed 1.6 million doses of AstraZeneca Plc’s (AZN.L) COVID-19 vaccine to provide second doses and it had approached several countries for help, including the United States and Canada.

The Foreign Ministry said  its diplomats were also hoping to secure 4 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine from the United States, which plans to share up to 60 million doses of the vaccine. 

“People above 65 and others in risk groups who received their first shots of the Indian vaccine are waiting for their second,” Jhalak Gautam, head of the vaccine section of the Ministry of Health and Population, told Reuters.

Bangladesh has an agreement with the Serum Institute of India (SII), which manufactures the AstraZeneca shot, for 30 million doses, but has received only 7 million.