Bangladesh expects the first shipment of the Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII) to arrive in early January, says Health Minister Zahid Maleque.
The minister said this on Thursday while addressing the inaugural event of the measles-rubella vaccination program in Dhaka.
“We hope that we’ll receive the vaccines early next month [January]. We have made arrangements to bring the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine to Bangladesh through the Serum Institute of India. The government is bringing 30 million doses of vaccine directly,” he said.
A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed in November, between the officials of the Health Ministry, SII, and Beximco Pharmaceuticals in Dhaka to collect the vaccines.
Earlier this week, an official of the Indian High Commission in Dhaka also said that Bangladesh is likely to receive its first shipment of the vaccine early next month.
“As we have said earlier, Bangladesh would be the first country to get the Indian Covid-19 vaccine once it is ready. Now we are in the last moments of vaccine approval and manufacturing. Hopefully, the people of Bangladesh will get the vaccine in the upcoming new year, by January,” said the official who asked not to be named.
The vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University showed an average efficacy of 70.4% in a pooled analysis of interim data from late stage trials, Oxford said earlier this week.
