50 lakh Sinopharm doses arrive in Dhaka

Around 50 lakh more doses of the Sinopharm vaccine arrived in Dhaka from China in the early hours of Thursday.

A regular flight of Biman Bangladesh Airlines landed at Shahjalal International Airport with the vaccine consignment around 2 am, said Maidul Islam Prodran, senior information officer (Health).

Chief Health Coordinator Dr Abu Jaher received the vaccine consignment at the airport, he added.

The vaccine doses are, in fact, part of the commercial purchase from China.

On September 18, Bangladesh received some 50 lakh doses of the Sinopharm vaccine. Besides, 54 lakh doses of the Chinese Covid vaccine arrived in Bangladesh on September 11.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina recently told Parliament that the government had made arrangements to get more than one crore Covid-19 jabs every month.

According to the schedule received from the company producing Sinopharm, two crore shots will be available every month from October and six crore from December, she had said.

On August 16, Bangladesh, China and Incepta Vaccine Limited signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on the co-production of the Sinopharm vaccine in Bangladesh.