Bangladeshi medical students receive doses of China-donated COVID-19 vaccine

DHAKA, May 27 (Xinhua) -- They were looking at each other and smiling as they attended a ceremony to receive COVID-19 vaccine doses China donated to Bangladesh.

They are students of Bangladesh's leading Dhaka Medical College.

Ananya Salam Samata, the first recipient of the Chinese vaccine, is a final year student of the Dhaka Medical College.

She said she felt so privileged to be the first person vaccinated with Chinese jab against COVID-19 in the country.

"I'm very happy," she said in her immediate reaction shortly after receiving the vaccine. "It's a memorable day for me."

As part of internship, she said they serve patients in hospital regularly.

"Due to COVID-19, we could not do that properly. Hope we could again serve patients as we are vaccinated. Our educational life will be the same as before at least to a some extent."

Another two Dhaka Medical College students, who received their first doses together with Ananya, also expressed their deep satisfaction to have the opportunity to receive the Chinese vaccine.

"I'm very happy indeed to receive Chinese vaccine," said Mollah Niyamul Haque.

"Thanks to the Chinese government for providing us the vaccine and thank you, honorable prime minister of Bangladesh, for providing us and providing medical front-liners first."

They expressed their gratitude to China for supporting their country with the COVID-19 vaccine donation.

"I'm very happy that I received China vaccine and I hope that it will work very well," said Shaheen Ahmed.

"I'm okay now. I feel that if everyone receives this vaccine then everyone will be OK and they will be able to continue classes and exams," he said.

"So thanks a lot for China."

The ceremony, held at Dhaka Medical College and Hospital on Tuesday and attended by Bangladeshi Health Minister Zahid Maleque and other officials, came after Bangladesh received its second batch of China-donated vaccine.

After the ceremony, about 1,000 final-year students from Bangladesh's four top leading medical colleges, namely Dhaka Medical College, Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College, Sir Salimullah Medical College and Mugda Medical College with their campuses based in capital Dhaka, all received their doses of the Chinese vaccine.

The health minister said they have decided to administer the China-gifted vaccine doses to those on the frontline as the priority group.

"We've to vaccinate them because they will provide care at various hospitals after completing their internship," he said in a speech during the ceremony.

He thanked China for donating the vaccine doses to Bangladesh and expressed the hope that Bangladesh would be able to procure more vaccines from China in the near future.

Bangladesh's drug regulator on April 29 authorized the emergency use of Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine in the country, days after Dhaka suspended the first dosing of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine on a supply crunch.

Last week China announced to donate second batch of COVID-19 vaccines to Bangladesh.

The donation was made after Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi had a phone conversation with Bangladeshi Foreign Minister A.K. Abdul Momen on the evening of May 21.

The announcement came just nine days after China's first donation of vaccines arrived in Bangladesh.

The Chinese Embassy here expressed hope that the arrival of the Chinese vaccines will help the Bangladeshi government and people build a strong line of defense against the epidemic.

China has recently announced that it is willing to provide necessary support for Bangladesh and other South Asian countries to fight the epidemic in the future.