10 lakh AstraZeneca vaccine doses arrive from India

The third commercial shipment of 10 lakh doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine from Serum Institute of India (SII) arrived around 5.30 pm on Saturday afternoon at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka. 

"Officials of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), and Beximco Pharmaceuticals Ltd received the consignment of one million shots of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine at the airport," Dr Md Shamsul Haque, Line Director of Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health under the DGHS told BSS this evening. 

A tripartite procurement agreement was signed among Bangladesh government, Beximco Pharmaceuticals Ltd and Serum Institute of India (SII) in December last year for 30 million Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines. 

The health ministry sources said five million or 50 lakh Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines reached Bangladesh on January 25 under a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed on November 5 and a subsequent tripartite agreement on December 13 among Bangladesh Government, Beximco Pharmaceuticals Ltd (BPL) and the Serum Institute of India (SII).

On February 22, Bangladesh received the second consignment of COVID-19 20 lakh Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines from the SII.

With the third commercial shipment of one million doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, the total quantity of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine has stood at eight millions.

Till to date, Bangladesh has collected 5,37,19,940 doses of vaccines, the DGHS sources said.

Bangladesh has so far approved eight COVID-19 vaccines to control the deadly disease.

The approved COVID-19 vaccines are from Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, CoronaVac, Pfizer, Covishield, Sputnik V, AstraZeneca and Sinopharm.

Source: BSS