Vaccine
5 lakh doses of Chinese vaccine to arrive on May 12: Envoy
Chinese Ambassador to Bangladesh Li Jiming on Monday officially announced that 5 lakh doses of Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine will reach Bangladesh on May 12 as a “special gift”.
"It's the latest outcome of China-Bangladesh anti-pandemic cooperation which again shows that our two peoples are in the same boat and we will stand with each other till the end of this battle," he said.
The Ambassador made the announcement during an interaction with the members of Diplomatic Correspondents Association, Bangladesh (DCAB) held virtually. DCAB President Pantho Rahaman and General Secretary AKM Moinuddin also spoke at the event.
Read Russian Vaccine Sputnik V: Things we should know to fight COVID-19
"China is dedicated to international vaccine cooperation," said the Chinese envoy, adding that the Sinopharm vaccine has already been recognised and used in over 50 countries and regions globally for quite some time.
“This is a new vote of confidence in China’s vaccines cast by the world. The Bangladeshi government also gave emergency use authorisation to the vaccine a week prior to the WHO’s clearance, which I believe is a far-sighted decision. It shows the faith put in China by Bangladesh, and it will surely mean a lot to our future cooperation,” he said.
According to clinical statistics provided by Sinopharm and the evaluation of the WHO, the efficacy rate of the vaccine is estimated to reach 79%, all age groups included.
Also read: Decision on China vaccine after consulting advisory body: Health Minister
Ambassador Li said the vaccine is recommended for adults aged 18 and older, and WHO did not indicate any upper age limit for use as data suggests that the vaccine is likely to have a protective effect in elder persons.
“It is also the first vaccine carrying a vial monitor, a small sticker on the vaccine vials that changes colour with the exposure to heat, thus warning health professionals if any doses go bad,” he said.
As the Covid-19 is still wreaking a havoc on people’s lives and disturbing social and economic activities in Bangladesh, the 500 thousand doses of vaccine are arriving just in time. It is the latest outcome of China-Bangladesh anti-pandemic cooperation.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has listed the Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use, giving the green light for this vaccine to be rolled out globally.
The Sinopharm vaccine is produced by Beijing Bio-Institute of Biological Products Co Ltd, subsidiary of China National Biotec Group (CNBG).
Bangladesh has kept up its intensified efforts to get Oxford-AstraZeneca and China's Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccines from India, China and the United States.
The Chinese Ambassador said China proposed providing the vaccine doses as a gift on February 3 and the government of Bangladesh took three months to approve it.
He said there is a high demand of Chinese vaccines and it will take time to get vaccines through commercial purchase.
The Ambassador said Bangladesh proposed getting Chinese vaccines through commercial purchase on April 30 and Bangladesh could have got those much earlier if the decision had been taken timely.
He laid emphasis on quick and effective decisions by the government of Bangladesh on issues like vaccines.
Earlier, Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen on Saturday said there is nothing to be worried about the availability of vaccines noting that the government will have enough vaccines soon from alternative sources.
“I believe we'll have enough vaccines. No person should be worried about it. Vaccines will come timely and all will get it,” he said in a video message shared on his verified Facebook page.
The Foreign Minister said Bangladesh is much ahead of many countries in the world in procuring vaccines and launching vaccination drives across the country.
Also read: UN chief urges all to act collectively to recover from COVID-19 ...
Vaccine deserts: Some countries have no COVID-19 jabs at all
At the small hospital where Dr. Oumaima Djarma works in Chad’s capital, there are no debates over which coronavirus vaccine is the best.
There are simply no vaccines at all.
Not even for the doctors and nurses like her, who care for COVID-19 patients in Chad, one of the least-developed nations in the world where about one third of the country is engulfed by the Sahara desert.
Also read:New Covid strains won’t impact efficiency of Russian vaccines, expert claims
“I find it unfair and unjust, and it is something that saddens me,” the 33-year-old infectious diseases doctor says. “I don’t even have that choice. The first vaccine that comes along that has authorization, I will take it.”
While wealthier nations have stockpiled vaccines for their citizens, many poorer countries are still scrambling to secure doses. A few, like Chad, have yet to receive any.
The World Health Organization says nearly a dozen countries — many of them in Africa — are still waiting to get vaccines. Those last in line on the continent along with Chad are Burkina Faso, Burundi, Eritrea and Tanzania.
“Delays and shortages of vaccine supplies are driving African countries to slip further behind the rest of the world in the COVID-19 vaccine rollout and the continent now accounts for only 1% of the vaccines administered worldwide,” WHO warned Thursday.
And in places where there are no vaccines, there’s also the chance that new and concerning variants could emerge, said Gian Gandhi, UNICEF’s COVAX coordinator for Supply Division.
“So we should all be concerned about any lack of coverage anywhere in the world,” Gandhi said, urging higher-income countries to donate doses to the nations that are still waiting.
While the total of confirmed COVID-19 cases among them is relatively low compared with the world’s hot spots, health officials say that figure is likely a vast undercount: The countries in Africa still waiting for vaccines are among those least equipped to track infections because of their fragile health care systems.
Chad has confirmed only 170 deaths since the pandemic began, but efforts to stop the virus entirely here have been elusive. Although the capital’s international airport was closed briefly last year, its first case came via someone who crossed one of Chad’s porous land borders illegally.
Regular flights from Paris and elsewhere have resumed, heightening the chance of increasing the 4,835 already confirmed cases.
The Farcha provincial hospital in N’Djamena is a gleaming new campus in an outlying neighborhood, where camels nibble from acacia trees nearby. Doctors Without Borders has helped supply oxygen for COVID-19 patients, and the hospital has 13 ventilators. The physicians also have plenty of Chinese-made KN95 masks and hand sanitizer. Still, not a single employee has been vaccinated and none has been told when that might be possible.
That was easier to accept at the beginning of the pandemic, Djarma said, because doctors all around the world lacked vaccines. That has changed dramatically after the development of shots in the West and by China and Russia that have gone to other poor African countries.
Also Read:Doctors in Nepal warn of major crisis as virus cases surge
“When I hear, for example, in some countries that they’ve finished with medical staff and the elderly and are now moving on to other categories, honestly, it saddens me,” Djarma said. “I ask them if they can provide us with these vaccines to at least protect the health workers.
“Everyone dies from this disease, rich or poor,” she says. “Everyone must have the opportunity, the chance to be vaccinated, especially those who are most exposed.”
COVAX, the U.N.-backed program to ship COVID-19 vaccines worldwide, is aimed at helping low- and middle-income countries get access. A few of the countries, though, including Chad, have expressed concerns about receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine through COVAX for fear it might not protect as well against a variant first seen in South Africa.
Chad is expected to get some Pfizer doses next month if it can put in place the cold storage facilities needed to keep that vaccine safe in a country where temperatures soar each day to 43.5 degrees Celsius (110 degrees Fahrenheit).
Some of the last countries also took more time to meet the requirements for receiving doses, including signing indemnity waivers with manufacturers and having distribution plans in place.
Those delays, though, now mean an even longer wait for places like Burkina Faso, since a key vaccine manufacturer in India scaled back its global supply because of the catastrophic virus surge there.
“Now with global vaccine supply shortages, stemming in particular from the surge of cases in India and subsequently the Indian government’s sequestration of doses from manufacturers there, Burkina Faso risks even longer delays in receiving the doses it was slated to get,” said Donald Brooks, CEO of a U.S. aid group engaged in the COVID-19 response there known as Initiative: Eau.
Front-line health workers in Burkina Faso say they’re not sure why the government hasn’t secured vaccines.
“We would have liked to have had it like other colleagues around the world,” says Chivanot Afavi, a supervising nurse who worked on the front lines of the response until recently. “No one really knows what this disease will do to us in the future.”
In Haiti, not a single vaccine has been administered to the more than 11 million people who live in the most impoverished country of the Western hemisphere.
Haiti was slated to receive 756,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine via COVAX, but government officials said they didn’t have the infrastructure needed to conserve them and worried about having to throw them away. Haitian officials also expressed concerns over potential side effects and said they preferred a single-dose vaccine.
Also Read:India's disaster hangs over countries facing COVID-19 surges
Several small island nations in the Pacific also have yet to receive any vaccine, although the lack of outbreaks in some of those places has meant there is less urgency with inoculation campaigns. Vanuatu, with a population of 300,000, is waiting to receive its first doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine later this month, but it has recorded only three cases of coronavirus, all of them in quarantine.
At the Farcha hospital in Chad, nine health care workers have gotten the virus, including Dr. Mahamat Yaya Kichine, a cardiologist. The hospital now has set up pods of health care worker teams to minimize the risk of exposure for the entire staff.
“It took almost 14 days for me to be cured,” Kichine says. “There were a lot of caregivers that were infected, so I think that if there is a possibility to make a vaccine available, it will really ease us in our work.”
What does it feel like to get COVID-19 after taking the vaccine?
In medical science, vaccines are used to prevent certain diseases. Getting the COVID-19 vaccine to prevent coronavirus is not different. However, it is not a myth that you can get affected by COVID even after getting the vaccine. After more than a year of fighting against the deadly virus, many institutes bring out the vaccine. While all the vaccines are tested before bringing out to the market, no vaccine can guarantee 100% prevention of COVID-19. Therefore, a small percentage of people will still get COVID-19 after the full vaccination or even the first dose, which is called “vaccine breakthrough cases.”
Although vaccine breakthrough cases for the coronavirus are significantly low, researchers are trying to find out the causes.
Read Online Pharmacy: Where to Buy Medicine in Dhaka during coronavirus home quarantine.
Reasons to get affected by COVID even after the vaccination
According to the general theory, if anyone exposed to the virus is likely to get infected. However, the vaccine should be able to prevent it. But, in some cases, a person could be affected right after the first dose or even after the full vaccination. Typically, the COVID-19 vaccine takes two weeks to build protection in the body. So, it is normal that a person can get infected if the vaccine has not had enough time to build the antibody.
Another reason to get attacked by the new variants. While the current data suggest that vaccines will give protection against all types of variants, research is still going on. However, some variants might show regular symptoms of coronavirus in some people after they get both doses.
Also read: How to strengthen your immune system to prevent COVID-19 infections?
What does it feel like infected by COVID-19 after vaccination?
Even though a tiny percentage of fully vaccinated people might get sick, the vaccine will surely protect most of the people from getting affected. There is some evidence that getting COVID-19 after the vaccination may make the illness less severe. Despite this, if fully vaccinated people get affected, they might have chances to be hospitalized and die.
However, the overall chances of hospitalization and death among the vaccinated people will be lower than the people who are not vaccinated. The symptoms of COVID-19 for the fully vaccinated people will be similar to the regular COVID symptoms such as fever, tiredness, and dry coughs.
Less common symptoms include sore throat, headache, diarrhea, aches and pains, loss of smell or taste, and rashes on skins. Further, the serious symptoms might show chest pain or pressure, breathing difficulty, and loss of speech or movement.
Also read: Safe Lifestyle in COVID-19 Lockdown: Do's, Don'ts, and Precautions
However, the good thing is that vaccine breakthrough cases are rare. Although there is no report to get affected after vaccination in Bangladesh, about 0.01 percent of Americans are known to be infected following the vaccination.
According to data, of the 95+ million vaccinated United States population, only 9,245 people are reported to be affected. All these data suggest that the vaccine is effective against the coronavirus, and getting affected after vaccination is rare should be counted as normal.
Read Top health apps for online doctor consultation services in Bangladesh
Global Covid cases top 154.7 million
The pandemic continues to devastate countries across the world. And with new variants of Covid-19 spreading faster than ever before in several nations, the global corona cases have now topped 154.7 million.
In fact, according to Johns Hopkins University (JHU), the total case count and fatalities surged to 154,788,122 and 3,237,808, respectively, on Thursday.
The US, the world's worst-hit country in terms of cases and deaths, has so far logged 32,557,299 infections and 579,265 fatalities, respectively, as per the JHU data.
The Centers for Disease Control is now reporting an average of about 350,000 new cases each week, 35,000 hospitalisations and over 4,000 deaths, reports AP.
With Covid-19 deaths, hospitalisations and cases plummeting since January, many states and cities are already moving to ease or lift restrictions on restaurants, bars, theaters and other businesses and talking about getting back to something close to normal this summer.
Also Read:Global Covid cases near 154 million
Brazil registered 2,811 more deaths from Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, raising the country's death toll to 414,399, the Ministry of Health reported Wednesday.
Meanwhile, tests detected 73,295 new Covid-19 cases, taking the national tally to 14,930,183.
Brazil has the world's second-highest Covid-19 death toll, after the United States, and the third-largest outbreak, behind the United States and India.
Meanwhile, India has recorded 20,665,148 cases as of Thursday morning, with 226,188 fatalities.
India’s hospitals are packed with Covid-19 patients and the shortage of oxygen is only intensifying the woes of patients and their relatives.
Situation in Bangladesh
Bangladesh on Wednesday recorded 50 more deaths from Covid-19 in 24 hours, showing a marked fall in the fatality rate.
With the new death data, the mortality from coronavirus has risen to 11,755, the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) said in a handout.
Also Read:Covid’s daily death toll in Bangladesh falls to 50
Health authorities recorded 1,742 new infections during the period, pushing up the caseload to 7,67,338.
Vaccination Drive
Bangladesh kicked off its vaccination drive on February 7 with Oxford-AstraZeneca doses it acquired from the Serum Institute of India.
Bangladesh signed an agreement with Serum for 30 million doses. But a record number of cases in India has made the delivery of the doses uncertain.
However, DGHS DG Prof ABM Khurshid Alam has said that Bangladesh will get 2.1 million doses of the vaccine by early May.
In the past 24 hours, 38 people have received the first dose and 83,540 have received the second dose of Covid vaccine, according to the DGHS handout.
Also Read:Covid vaccine stock running out: DGHS
So far, a total of 72,48,829 people have received the vaccine, of which 31,06709 got their second dose.
Lockdown extended
The government has issued a notification extending the ongoing lockdown until May 16 with six fresh directives alongside the existing ones to contain the spread of Covid-19.
According to the notification issued by the Cabinet Division, officials of all government, semi-government autonomous and private organisations, banks and financial institutions have been asked to remain at their respective workstations during the Eid-ul-Fitr holidays.
Shops and shopping malls will remain open from 10 am to 8 pm maintaining health guidelines. If any violations are seen, the shopping malls and shops will be closed instantly, says the notification.
Also Read:Officials asked not to leave workstations during Eid holidays
Inter-district transport services will remain suspended, while only intra-district transport services will operate adhering to health guidelines from Thursday.
However, launch and train services will remain suspended.
US support behind vaccine patent waiver ‘monumental moment’ in Covid fight: WHO
The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) has hailed the US administration's decision to support temporary vaccine patent waiver as a "monumental moment" in the global fight against Covid-19.
"This is a monumental moment in the fight against Covid-19. The commitment by the President of the United States Joe Biden and Ambassador Katherine Tai, the US Trade Representative, to support the waiver of IP protections on vaccines is a powerful example of American leadership to address global health challenges,” WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Thursday.
Also Read:WHO, Germany to launch new global hub for pandemic, epidemic intelligence
“I commend the US on its historic decision for vaccine equity and prioritizing the well-being of all people everywhere at a critical time. Now let's all move together swiftly, in solidarity, building on the ingenuity and commitment of scientists who produced life-saving Covid-19 vaccines."
On Wednesday, Ambassador Kai issued a statement saying the extraordinary circumstances caused by the Covid-19 pandemic required extraordinary measures to respond and that the waiving of intellectual property protections on vaccines was needed to help end the pandemic.
The US would, the statement continued, participate in World Trade Organization negotiations to support the temporary waiving of protections, and work with the private sector and other partners to expand vaccine manufacturing and distribution.
Dr Tedros said the White House’s support for the temporary waiving of intellectual property protections on Covid-19 vaccines reflects the wisdom and moral leadership of the US to work towards ending the pandemic.
Also Read:Bangladeshi doctor made WHO Representative to Maldives
"But I am not surprised by this announcement. This is what I expected from the administration of President Biden.”
Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic WHO has been working with partners to scale up the development and distribution of vaccines, diagnostics and treatments through the Access to Covid-19 Tools Accelerator, a pillar of which is the COVAX Facility for equitable sharing of vaccines to at-risk people worldwide.
India reports over 380,000 new cases, tally at 20,665,148
India's COVID-19 tally reached 20,665,148 on Wednesday with as many as 382,315 new cases registered during the past 24 hours, confirmed the federal health ministry.
Besides, 3,780 deaths were also reported, taking the death toll to 226,188.
Also Read: India's COVID-19 tally crosses 20 million
There are still a total of 3,487,229 active cases in the country, with an increase of 40,096 active cases through Tuesday, as 16,951,731 people have been cured and discharged from hospitals so far across the country.
The COVID-19 figures continue to peak in the country every day. The federal government has ruled out imposing a complete lockdown to contain the worsening situation though some states have imposed night curfews or partial lockdowns.
Delhi has been put under a third successive lockdown till May 10.
While some school examinations are cancelled, others have been postponed in the wake of COVID-19 situation.
The number of daily active cases has been on the rise over the past few weeks. In January the number of daily cases in the country had come down to below 10,000. As many as 9,102 new cases were reported between January 25-26, which was the lowest in the previous 237 days. Prior to that the lowest number of daily new cases were 9,304 registered on June 4, 2020.
January 16 was a crucial day in India's fight against the pandemic as the nationwide vaccination drive was kicked off during the day. So far over 160 million vaccination doses (160,494,188) have been administered to the people across the country.
Also Read: ‘Horrible’ weeks ahead as India’s virus catastrophe worsens
Online registration began last Wednesday for vaccinating people aged above 18. This is the third phase of COVID-19 vaccination, which began on Saturday.
Meanwhile, the federal government has ramped up COVID-19 testing facilities across the country, even as over 294 million tests have been conducted so far.
As many as 294,852,078 tests were conducted till Tuesday, out of which 1,541,299 tests were conducted on Tuesday alone, said the latest data issued by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on Wednesday.
The national capital Delhi, which has been one of the most COVID-19- affected places in the country, witnessed 19,953 new cases and 338 deaths through Tuesday.
So far as many as 17,752 people have died in the national capital due to COVID-19, confirmed Delhi's health department.
Also Read: Impact of devastating Indian virus surge spreads to politics
Two types of vaccines are being administered in India. While the "Covishield" vaccine, made by the "Serum Institute of India (SII)", was supplied to all states, the "Covaxin" vaccine, made by the "Bharat Biotech International Limited", was supplied to only 12 states.
Meanwhile, India received its first doses of Sputnik-V, the Russian-made vaccine, on Saturday.
Dhaka hopeful of getting vaccine doses from China before Eid
Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen on Tuesday said the Chinese government is working to start delivering Covid-19 vaccine doses before Eid-ul-Fitr although a 5-day May Day holiday is underway in China.
Seeing it as a sign of “special friendship” with Bangladesh, he said Chinese Ambassador in Dhaka Li Jiming recently informed them that vaccine doses will start arriving here before Eid while Health Minister Zahid Maleque shared a more specific date -- May 10.
“The Health Ministry will decide when and how many doses of the vaccine will arrive, and what will be the transportation system. They know when we’ll need it,” Dr Momen told UNB, adding that they just have helped the Health Ministry establish the network with both China and Russia as alternative sources of vaccines.
Read Bangladesh, China, others call for avoiding vaccine nationalism
The Foreign Minister said everything is now closed in China due to the current holiday – the five-day May Day holiday. The holiday will end on May 5, he said.
“It takes some time as vaccines are produced based on orders,” Dr Momen said, adding that discussions with Russia and the United States are on to get vaccines.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday reaffirmed that the government will procure vaccines at any cost to protect people from coronavirus. “We are bringing more vaccines, no matter how much money is required; we will bring more vaccines."
Also read: Vaccines to be procured at any expense, says PM Hasina
China was supposed to give 5 lakh doses of vaccine as a gift apart from supplying vaccines through commercial purchase.
Bangladesh has received 7 million of Oxford-AstraZeneca covid-19 vaccine doses produced by Serum Institute of India (SII) vaccines through its contract. Bangladesh also received 3.3 million doses of vaccine as a bilateral partnership gift. This is the largest amount sent from India to any country.
The US has decided to share its entire stock of Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines with the world once it clears federal safety reviews, the White House said, with as many as 60 million doses expected to be available for export in the coming months.
Read Brazil’s Bolsonaro rejects Chinese vaccine against COVID-19
“We sought vaccines from the US as they’ve a stock of 60 million doses. We would definitely welcome it,” Dr Momen said.
He said they came to know, not in any letter (formal channel) but publicly that the US identified India and Brazil as priority countries to supply vaccines.
Dr Momen said the United States assured all concerned of making Covid-19 vaccines available for other countries, including in Bangladesh once they have surplus reaching the level of mass vaccination in the US.
“I can assure you when we can reach the level of the critical mass vaccination and we’ve surplus, we’ll absolutely make vaccines available in whatever different ways,” said John Kerry, the US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate told reporters during his recent visit to Bangladesh.
Also read: Intensify efforts to procure vaccines for alternative sources: BNP
Diplomacy in Digital Era
The Foreign Minister said they are continuing their diplomatic activities using digital tools despite disruptions globally amid Covid pandemic.
“We’re continuously connecting with everyone,” he said, mentioning that webinars and WhatsApp emerged as frequent means of communication during Covid situation.
Dr Momen, however, said in-person meetings and negotiations came down significantly due to the current situation. “But in-person meetings are good for better negotiations.”
Read WHO team working with Chinese vaccine producers ahead of potential emergency use: WHO director-general
Vaccine willingness ranged from 96% in Myanmar to 83% in Bangladesh: Survey
Dhaka, May 3 (UNB) - People's willingness to take a vaccine for the coronavirus varied across the world in 2020, with the percentages saying they would take a vaccine ranging from a high of 96% in Myanmar to a low of 25% in Kazakhstan while it is 83% in Bangladesh, says a global survey.
In the first full year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the majority of adults worldwide (68%) told Gallup that they would agree to be vaccinated if a coronavirus vaccine were available to them at no cost.
However, like the global number, in most countries, the percentages fell short of the estimated 70% to 90% that some experts say would need to be vaccinated to achieve herd immunity in a population, said Gallup in a report on Monday.
But importantly, if everyone who said they were willing to take the coronavirus actually did, just 38 of the 116 countries and areas that Gallup surveyed throughout the latter half of 2020 would reach the minimum 70% estimated threshold for achieving herd immunity.
Only one country, Myanmar, would exceed the high-end estimate of 90%.
Percentages worldwide who say they would take a vaccine for the coronavirus if it were made available to them at no cost.
Also read: Local pharma seeks permission to bring Moderna vaccine: DGHS DG
In 15 countries, including India, which is currently dealing with a second catastrophic wave of the virus and where less than 10% of the population has received one dose, the percentage willing to take a coronavirus vaccine was between 80% and 89%.
And in 22 others, including the United Kingdom, Germany and Brazil -- which is also dealing with a massive COVID-19 surge -- 70% to 79% were inclined to be vaccinated.
Vaccines are given to people to help prevent specific diseases.
Willingness Lowest in Eastern Europe, Former Soviet States -- Including Russia
Gallup's research on behalf of the Wellcome Global Monitor in 2018 showed people in Eastern Europe and former Soviet states were among the least likely in the world to believe vaccines in general are safe and effective -- before the pandemic.
People in these two regions were also the least likely in 2020 to be willing to take the coronavirus vaccine -- 43% on average said they would in Commonwealth of Independent States countries, and 46% would in non-EU-member countries in Europe.
Many countries in these two regions -- including most of the Balkans -- and former Soviet states also dominate the list of places where people were the least willing to take a coronavirus vaccine if it were available at no cost.
For example, less than half of Russians in 2018 who had heard of vaccines (45%) agreed that they were safe, while a sizable 24% disagreed (one of the highest rates in the world).
Fast-forwarding to shortly before their government rolled out its own coronavirus vaccine, called Sputnik V, domestically in December, 37% of Russians said they would take a coronavirus vaccine if offered, while 61% said they would not.
Also read: Vaccines to be procured at any expense, says PM Hasina
Nearly three in 10 (29%) worldwide said they would not agree to be vaccinated, and another 3% said they did not know or refused to answer; together, these translate into roughly 1.3 billion adults who were unwilling to be vaccinated at the time of the survey.
Efforts to vaccinate people will clearly face much stronger headwinds in some countries than others.
Majorities of adults in nearly two dozen countries and areas worldwide firmly said they would not agree to be vaccinated.
Further, people in many of these countries have yet to see more than 2% of their population vaccinated.
Unsurprisingly, the list includes Russia and countries in Eastern Europe where few people said they would take vaccines, but it is led by sub-Saharan African countries Gabon and Cameroon, where two-thirds of the populations would not take vaccines if offered. Majorities in Senegal, Togo and Namibia also said they would not take the vaccine.
Looking Ahead
Because the surveys were conducted throughout 2020, countries were at various stages of the pandemic, but in most countries, vaccines had yet to be rolled out to the public.
It is reasonable to expect that attitudes may have shifted since, as vaccines have become available to more people.
For example, opinions toward vaccines in the U.S. have changed over the past year.
Barely a majority of Americans (53%) at the time of the 2020 World Poll in September and October said they would agree to be vaccinated, which was in line with Gallup's other domestic polling at the same time.
However, by March 2021 -- a few months into vaccine rollouts -- 74% of Americans said they would take one of the FDA emergency-approved vaccines for the coronavirus if it were available at no cost, and 26% said they would not.
Even if people's attitudes elsewhere have shifted as they have in the U.S., these data still provide some sense of the resistance that countries are likely facing with the public during their vaccine rollouts.
Also read: Vaccination Demand Observatory launched to address vaccine misinformation
This is on top of the logistical challenges involved in mass vaccination efforts.
As that process continues across the U.S. and the rest of the world, the challenge will eventually shift from meeting the needs of those willing to be vaccinated to building support among the somewhat sizable populations that likely remain hesitant.
Covid-19: Bangladesh logs 69 more deaths, 1,359 new cases
The health authorities reported 69 more coronavirus-related deaths in 24 hours until Sunday morning, taking the death toll to 11,569, as Bangladesh grapples to tackle the second wave of the pandemic.
Besides, 1,359 new cases were detected after examining 14,158 samples, the lowest number of tests since April 18, according to government data.
The health authorities have so far tested 5,498,979 samples. There has been a steady decline in the number of tests since April 28. New cases have been on the wane since April 26 but fell dramatically since April 28, data available on corona.gov.bd show.
However, the daily infection rate fell to 9.6 percent from Saturday’s 9.61 percent while the fatality rate rose to 1.52 percent from 1.51 percent a day before, said the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
With the new cases, the country’s total Covid-19 caseload now stands at 761,943, the DGHS handout said.
Bangladesh reported its first coronavirus cases on March 8, 2020 and the first death on March 18 that year.
Also read: Covid-19: Bangladesh sees 77 deaths, new cases 2,955
India's Serum to produce Covid jabs overseas: Report
Unable to cope with the growing demand for its Covid-19 jabs in India and abroad, the Serum Institute is reportedly planning to soon start the production of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine in other countries as well.
Serum's Covishield is being widely used in both India and Bangladesh's mega inoculation drives. Bangladesh has inked a deal with Serum to buy 30 million doses of Covishield, but a recent surge in Covid cases in India has made the delivery of the remaining doses uncertain.
Read Will soon come out of uncertainty over vaccine availability: Minister
Serum's chief executive officer Adar Poonawalla revealed his plans to set up vaccine
production units outside India in an interview with The Times newspaper. "There's going to be an announcement in the next few days," he told the British daily.
Poonawalla hoped to increase the Serum Institute's production capacity from the existing 2.5 billion to 3 billion doses a year within six months, the newspaper reported.
Read Bangladesh approves emergency use of Russian Sputnik V vaccine
India is currently witnessing a ferocious second wave of Covid-19. On Saturday, the country registered a record four lakh cases in a span of 24 hours, for the first time after reporting over three lakh daily infections for nine days in a row.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi rolled out the world's largest Covid vaccination drive on January 16. Covishield and local company Bharat Biotech's Covaxin are currently being given to citizens. However, several states in India have run out of Covid vaccines.
Read PVA bats for suspension of intellectual property rights on Covid jabs