The cabinet committee on government purchases in a meeting on Wednesday (August 11) approved procurement of 6 crore doses of Covid vaccine from Sinopharm of China through direct purchase method.

Finance minister AHM Mustafa Kamal who presided over the meeting virtually said that the committee had approved a proposal from Directorate General of Health Services in this connection.

He said, “We have approved a proposal to purchase 6 crore doses of vaccine from Sinopharm. We have calculated that 13.82 crore people of the country need to be vaccinated. For this it is necessary to buy 27.65 crore doses of vaccine. Of which, we have 2.55 crore. The rest has to be collected. Today we have approved the purchase of 6 crore doses. We will bring the rest in phases.”

When asked about the price, he said, “I will not say the price. However, it has not exceeded the previously fixed price.”