Two million more COVISHIELD doses to arrive on 11 February

Published 4 February 2021

Ei Thinzar Kyaw

Of the 30 million doses of COVISHIELD vaccines purchased from India, two million doses will arrive on 11th February, said Dr Khin Khin Gyi, Director of the Department of Infectious Diseases, Ministry of Health and Sports (MOHS).

Dr Khin Khin Gyi said, " The vaccines that are to arrive tomorrow (4th Feb.) have been changed to 11th February. They are 2 million doses out of the 30 million doses purchased from India ".

In the information given by the Ministry of Health and Sports on 26th Jan 39 million doses of COVISHIELD/AstraZeneca have already been purchased and that the first batch of two million of those doses will be arriving in the first week of February.

Dr Khin Khin Gyi said, " The Indian embassy has sent a letter. At first it was arranged to arrive on 4th Feb., but now it has been changed to 11th February. The countries concerned will like that. These side arrangements are being made to receive the vaccines, to store them, and to distribute to the states and regions concerned. Till now health workers from the states and regions are being given the vaccines " .

The Indian embassy issued a statement saying that the vaccines are given as a gift from India to Myanmar 1.5 million doses arrived on 22nd January, and a memorandum of understanding was signed to further purchase vaccines.

At 2.36 pm on 22nd Jan. Air India (AI1234) arrived with COVID-19 vaccines, and the Indian Ambassador handed them over to the responsible personnel from the Ministry of Health and Sports at the airport itself.

As it is not conducive to get sufficient COVID-19 vaccines at this time, like other countries and as per instructions by WHOSAGE technologists and basing on the contagion if the disease priority has been given to health workers to be administered with the vaccines, as mentioned in the syllabus for Administration of COVID-19 vaccines.

As this is a period not conducive to get sufficient COVID-19 vaccines, Myanmar, like other countries, has already selected groups of people to be given priority as per Roadmap for prioritizing uses of COVID-19 vaccines in the context of limited supply' as declared by WHOSAGE, and the occurrence of COVID-19. Although prioritized groups have been selected, when the vaccines arrive another time scrutiny will be made so that places with very little infection will not be given priority, and only Regions/States with high contagion will be given priority in keeping with the program of giving vaccines.