Health Minister Zahid Maleque has said the first consignment of five million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine bought from the Serum Institute of India (SII) will arrive on Monday.
The minister made the announcement while addressing the media from the meeting room of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare at the Secretariat in Dhaka on Sunday, reports Bangla Tribune.
He said: “We will receive five million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine on Monday. The country has already received two million vaccines as a gift from India.
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“All preparations have been taken to properly store and distribute the total seven million Covid-19 vaccine doses,” the minister added.
Maleque told reporters that he hopes Bangladesh will get the second consignment of the ordered vaccines in February.
“Permission to import vaccines through non-governmental arrangements is yet to be given,” he further said.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is scheduled to virtually launch Bangladesh’s Covid-19 vaccination campaign on Wednesday.
The nationwide vaccination program will start after a week of observation and a dry run on 400-500 people in Dhaka.
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On January 21, the Indian government sent two million doses of Covid-19 vaccine as a gift to Bangladesh, while as many as 30 million doses bought from SII are expected to arrive in phases.
On November 5, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the Health Ministry, Serum Institute of India and Beximco Pharmaceuticals in Dhaka to collect 30 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine.
On January 11, Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) Director General (DG) Prof Abul Bashar Mohammad Khurshid Alam told reporters that these vaccines will be stored in the warehouses of Beximco for two days and then will be disbursed across the country.
