Mohammad Al-Masum Molla

The government has made considerable progress in procuring Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine with health officials now working on finalising a government-to-government contract.

“We have got the agreement paper on Monday from the foreign ministry. We are now examining the terms and conditions. We have some observations about some conditions and we will reply with these tomorrow [Wednesday],” Health Minister Zahid Maleque told The Daily Star yesterday.

The minister hoped that the purchase agreement with the Russian authorities would be completed soon.

Asked about the price of the vaccine, the minister said it was not mentioned in the agreement proposal.

“Basically, this agreement proposal is on the level of terms and conditions such as when the authorities can send vaccines and what would happen if they cannot send vaccines on time.”