Over 1 lakh doses of Pfizer vaccine to arrive in Dhaka Sunday

A consignment of 1,00,620 doses of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine will arrive in the country on Sunday. 

A flight of Qatar Airlines carrying the doses will land in the country at 11.20pm, reads a press release issued by the Health and Family Welfare Ministry today. 

Bangladesh will receive the Pfizer doses via the World Health Organisation's Covax scheme. 

Earlier on the day, the Directorate General of Drug Administration approved the emergency use of the Pfizer vaccine, developed by the US.

The Pfizer vaccine also has Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) from the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA), the United Kingdom Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency (UKMHRA), the European Medicine Agency (EMA), and the World Health Organization (WHO).

Meanwhile, the US Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday authorized storage of Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine at standard refrigerator temperatures for up to one month, in an effort to make the vaccine more widely available, reports Reuters.

Unopened, thawed vials of the vaccine can be stored in a refrigerator at 2 to 8 degrees Celsius for up to a month, up from a previous maximum limit of five days.

"This change should make this vaccine more widely available to the American public by facilitating the ability of vaccine providers, such as community doctors' offices, to receive, store and administer the vaccine," said Peter Marks, director of FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research.

The change is especially important for global and remote US facilities that have poor transport and storage infrastructure.

In February, the US health agency approved the storage and transportation of the vaccine at standard freezer temperatures for up to two weeks instead of ultra-cold conditions.

Earlier in the day, Health Canada said it had approved storage of the vaccine at standard refrigerated temperatures for up to a month, to allow for more flexibility in distribution plans.

The vaccine was granted emergency use authorization in December with a label requiring it be stored at temperatures between -80ºC and -60ºC (-112ºF to -76ºF), meaning it had to be shipped in specially designed containers.

Pfizer has been one of a number of vaccine manufacturers testing for the vaccination of children.