Bangladesh to receive 1.2m Covid vaccine as gift from India
Bangladesh is set to receive an additional 1.2 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZenca vaccine as a gift from India on Friday.
The vaccine shipment will arrive in Dhaka on a flight around 8 am Friday_ Dr Mohammad Robed Amin_ the line director at the Non-Communicable Disease Control_ said citing information from the foreign ministry.
The same day_ Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to arrive in Dhaka to join the twin celebrations of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman s birth centenary and the golden jubilee of Bangladesh s independence.
The shipment has nothing to do with the imported vaccine doses we brought from India_ Amin said.
In January_ India presented Bangladesh with two million doses produced by the Serum Institute of India as a goodwill gesture. Separately_ Bangladesh signed a deal to import 30 million Oxford-AstraZenca vaccine doses from Serum Institute.
Bangladesh launched a nationwide mass vaccination drive on Feb 7 after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the programme in a small testing phase at the end of January.