Health authorities would start administering the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine within a few days, says Health Minister Zahid Maleque.
He made the statement on Saturday while talking to reporters after receiving the second consignment of the 3 million doses of the vaccine to be received from Japan under the Covax facility.
Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen and Health Minster Zahid Maleque, along with several officials from different ministries and the health directorate, received the jabs at the airport at around 2:50pm on Saturday.
According to the Line Director of Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) Dr Shamshul Haque they have received 781,320 doses of the vaccine.
With the fresh consignment Bangladesh has received a total of 1,026,520 doses of the vaccine.
Over 1.4 million people are awaiting their second dose of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine in the country.
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However, the third consignment that will contain 616,780 doses of the vaccine would arrive on August 3, confirmed the Foreign Ministry. The flight schedule for the consignment is yet to be known.
At the airport, the health minister said that they have already received a good quantity of the vaccine that could be administered as the second dose.
“We have received some 780,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine today [Saturday]. Few days back we have received around 150,000 doses of the vaccine. That’s a total of over 1million. Another consignment with over 600,000 doses of the vaccine would be arrive in August.”
The importance of the vaccine cannot be described in words. Around 1.5 million people are waiting for the second dose and so, health authorities are expected to start administering the second dose within a day or two, he added.
Bangladesh purchased 30 million doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine from the Serum Institute of India but only received 7 million of it, this left millions of people waiting for their second dose.
In this situation, the gift of the vaccine from Japan is helping the health authorities to provide necessary second dose to the waiting people.