Five million Covid-19 vaccine doses reach Dhaka

Online Desk

A consignment of five million doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca ‘Covishield’ vaccine manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII) has arrived in Dhaka from India.

A flight of Air India carrying the vaccine consignment landed at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport at 11:05 am, said additional SP of Airport Armed Police Alamgir Hossain.

This is the first consignment of the 30 million doses of ‘Covishield’ purchased from India. Bangladesh would get the vaccines in six phases as every consignment will carry 5 million vaccine doses per month.

Beximco Pharma will store the vaccines in its warehouse at Gazipur’s Tongi and hand them over to the government within January 27.

Earlier on 21 January, Bangladesh received two million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine as a gift from India, with the country planning to begin its mass vaccination early February.

On December 13, an agreement was signed for purchasing 30 million COVID-19 vaccine doses developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca.

Under the agreement, Bangladesh government will buy 30 million vaccines from the Serum Institute of India through its local vendor Beximco Pharmaceuticals Limited.

On November 5, a tripartite Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed for collecting three crore vaccine doses from the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca. The MoU was signed among the Bangladesh Government, Beximco Pharmaceuticals Ltd (BPL) and the Serum Institute of India (SII).

The health ministry said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will inaugurate the country’s vaccination programme through a video conferencing on January 27 as a nurse will receive the vaccine on the first on the day at Kurmitola General Hospital in the capital. Later around 25 frontliners will receive the vaccine the same day.

Around 400-500 frontliners including doctors and nurses will be given the vaccine in Kurmitola General Hospital, Mugda General Hospital, Kuwait-Bangladesh Maitree Hospital, Dhaka Medical College Hospital and Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) on January 28.

The first vaccine receivers will remain under observation for seven days to see if there is any side effect, the ministry said.