Shawdesh Desk:

The United States (US) is going to send three million more doses of Moderna COVID-19 vaccine to Bangladesh as gift under the COVAX facility.

US Ambassador to Bangladesh Earl R Miller made the announcement in a tweet on Saturday.

“Pleased to announce another gift of 3 million doses of Moderna COVID-19 vaccine coming to Bangladesh from the American people via COVAX,” the US envoy tweets this morning.

He said the US is committed to increasing the country’s vaccine supply to beat the pandemic here and worldwide.

The delivery date is not yet known, but the donation will give a huge boost to Bangladesh’s inoculation efforts amid a worsening 2nd wave of infections.

These Moderna vaccines doses are part of US government’s recent allocation of 25 million vaccine doses for countries in Asia as President Joe Biden promised to share doses of US jabs with other countries around the world via COVAX or directly.

The mRNA vaccine, with product name Spikevax, was given conditional approval for use in Bangladesh on June 29.

The COVAX is a worldwide initiative aimed at equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines directed by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, and the World Health Organization.

On July 2 and 3, Bangladesh received 2.5 million doses of Moderna COVID 19 vaccine from United States (US) as gift under the COVAX arrangement.

While handing over the vaccine to Bangladesh, Miller had said the US understands urgency of providing “safe” and “effective” COVID vaccine to Bangladesh.