The third consignment of Sinopharm’s Covid-19 vaccine doses has arrived in Bangladesh from China.
Three special flights of Biman Bangladesh Airlines, carrying one million doses of the vaccine each, landed at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka at 10:15pm on Thursday and 1:14am and 5:37am on Friday, Tahera Khondoker, deputy general manager (public relations) of Biman, told The Daily Star.
Earlier on Thursday, the three Boeing Dreamliners of Biman – one 787-9 and two -787-8 – left Dhaka for Beijing Capital International Airport in China to bring the three million doses of Sinopharm vaccine – the third consignment of purchased vaccine from China.
Before Thursday night’s shipment, Bangladesh received 4.5 million doses from China as purchased vaccines.
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Bangladesh initially signed a deal to purchase 15 million doses of vaccines from Sinopharm, which was expected to be delivered within three months.
After receiving the first consignment, the country struck another deal for 15 million vaccines, including the previous 13 million vaccines under the first agreement.
After the fresh agreement, Bangladesh received 2.5 million doses of vaccines.
Besides, China sent 1.1 million Sinopharm doses as a gift to Bangladesh in two consignments in July.
Bangladesh is mainly administering the Sinopharm vaccine at the upazila level or in areas outside the jurisdiction of city corporations.
