Bangladesh: Pfizer Vaccination Program for Workers Leaving to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait

Bangladesh: Pfizer Vaccination Program for Workers Leaving to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait

The Bangladeshi overseas employment ministry made the announcement on Friday in the wake of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait's updated travel restrictions requiring visitors to have had either Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Moderna, or Johnson and Johnson jabs to gain entry, leaving out the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine on which Bangladesh now relies.





Until April, Bangladesh had been administering Covishield, the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine manufactured by India, but its south Asian neighbor stopped delivering the shots.





Every week, 12,000 Bangladeshi workers travel to Saudi Arabia where they have had to undertake a costly 14-day quarantine period upon arrival, but with the Pfizer vaccination it will no longer be necessary.





Departures to Kuwait are scheduled to begin next month with the state expected to start receiving travelers from Aug. 1.

Bangladeshi Minister of Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment Imran Ahmad on Friday told Arab News: "Our migrant workers who will have the first dose of Pfizer vaccine in Bangladesh, will be exempted from the mandatory quarantine after their landing in the Kingdom."





As the government started registering workers for vaccination, he added that workers would receive their second vaccine doses under the supervision of Saudi authorities.





Bangladesh has so far received 100,000 Pfizer vaccine doses under the World Health Organization's COVAX program