DHAKA, March 21, 2022 (BSS) - Health Minister Zahid Maleque today said
relation between Bangladesh and the USA has become stronger as the country
(USA) provided 61 million vaccines to fight against COVID-19 pandemic.

"The USA has stood by Bangladesh through providing medical equipment
alongside vaccine donation when the country was struggling to handle
coronavirus disease," he made the comments while visiting vaccine assistance
activities provided by the USA at Kurmitola General Hospital in the city, an
official release said.

United States (US) undersecretary for political affairs Victoria Nuland,
Senior Secretary of health service division Lokman Hossain Mian, Director
General of Directorate General of Health Service (DGHS) Prof Dr Abul Bashar
Mohammad Khurshid Alam, among others, were present on the occasion.

The health minister said when vaccine scarcity was seen across the world, the
USA has sent Moderna and Pfizer vaccines to Bangladesh to combat the spread
of the deadly virus.

Nuland said the US government wants to strengthen the existing bond further
between Bangladesh and the USA. She thanked and expressed her gratitude to
the people of Bangladesh as the country (Bangladesh) stood by the USA during
its different crisis situations.

The health ministry sources said Bangladesh has set an impressive success on
vaccination coverage as the country has already inoculated 22,43,97,254 doses
of vaccine.

The government has fixed a target to inoculate 70 percent people with both
doses of COVID-19 jabs at the quickest possible time, they said, adding
Bangladesh has so far collected over 31 crore doses of vaccines and the
country has intensified its efforts to collect more doses of vaccines to
bring all eligible people under vaccination coverage to protect them from the
COVID-19 disease.