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US Ambassador to Bangladesh Earl R Miller has handed over a donation of 2.5 million doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccines to Bangladesh, a gift from the American people.
Ambassador Miller and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) Mission Director Kathryn Stevens handed over the vaccines to Additional Secretary of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare Syed Mojibul Huq and Director General at the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) Professor Dr Abul Bashar Mohammad Khurshid Alam during a ceremonial handover event at the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) headquarters in the city on Tuesday.
“The United States is pleased to donate these additional 2.5 million doses of life-saving Pfizer vaccines to Bangladesh and continue our support to the national vaccination campaign. We are also proud to support the global COVAX vaccine initiative to make sure the proper infrastructure is in place to store and administer these Pfizer vaccines safely and effectively,” said Ambassador Miller.
The US government and Government of Bangladesh officials also toured the EPI COVID-19 vaccine storage facility where Pfizer doses are being stored in 26 ultra-cold freezers supplied through the global COVAX vaccine alliance partnership.
This delivery of Pfizer vaccines comes as part of the broader commitment by the United States to lead the global COVID-19 response by donating a billion doses of Pfizer vaccine around the world – free of charge – through 2022.
In addition to vaccine donations, the United States continues to work closely with Bangladesh to support the national COVID-19 vaccination campaign and strengthen the government’s response to the pandemic.
The United States has provided training for more than 6,000 service providers and healthcare professionals to help them administer vaccines safely and efficiently, and protect the health of Bangladeshis, reports UNB.
To date, the United States has contributed over $96 million in COVID-related development and humanitarian assistance from USAID, the US Department of Defense, the US Department of State, and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
This assistance has helped save lives and treated individuals infected with COVID-19, strengthened testing capacity and monitoring, enhanced case management and infection prevention and control practices, and improved the supply chain and logistics management systems.
US support also protects frontline workers and increases the public’s knowledge about COVID-19, including ways to protect themselves.
The United States has donated $4 billion to support the worldwide COVAX effort, which includes support for ultra-cold chain storage, transportation, and safe handling of COVID-19 vaccines, making the United States the world’s largest donor for equitable global COVID-19 vaccine access.