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The first batch of 1.06 lakh doses of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine arrived in Dhaka Monday night under the global vaccine initiative Covax facility.
A regular flight of Emirates landed at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport at 11:10pm with the doses and Md Shamsul Haque, a line director at the Directorate General of Health Services, received them, Dr Nasrin Akhter, a medical officer at the airport's health centre, confirmed.
COVAX, the facility set up by the World Health Organization and several non-profits to deliver Covid-19 vaccines to developing nations, is working in partnership with Unicef, developed and developing country vaccine manufacturers, the World Bank, and others.
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On May 27, the Directorate General of Drug Administration approved the emergency use of the Pfizer vaccine.
So far four vaccines – Oxford-AstraZeneca (Covishield), Sputnik-V, Sinopharm, and Pfizer-BioNTech – have got emergency use authorisation in the country.
The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was the first coronavirus jab to show promising results in the latter stages of its testing process.
It is a new type called an mRNA vaccine that uses a tiny fragment of genetic code from the pandemic virus to teach the body how to fight Covid-19 and build immunity.
READ: COVID-19: Bangladesh to receive over 1 lakh Pfizer vaccine on Sunday
The US Food and Drug Administration has authorised the storage of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine at standard refrigerator temperatures for up to one month, to make the vaccine more widely available.