Bangladesh gets another 5 mln doses of Chinese COVID-19 vaccine

DHAKA, Sept. 19 : Bangladesh on Saturday received another 5 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine developed by China's pharmaceutical Sinopharm Group. A plane of Biman Bangladesh Airlines carrying the Chinese vaccine doses landed at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport at around 2:00 a.m. local time Saturday, Health Ministry spokesman Maidul Islam Prodhan told reporters. Abu Zaher, chief health coordinator at Bangladesh's Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, received the consignment at the airport. Earlier on Sept. 11, 5.4 million doses of the Sinopharm vaccine arrived in Dhaka from China. Bangladesh's vaccination drive is now running smoothly in the capital Dhaka and elsewhere largely thanks to China's continued vaccine support. To fight the alarming spike in COVID-19 cases, Bangladesh has signed an agreement on the co-production of the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine doses locally. Bangladesh began the COVID-19 vaccination drive in January to contain the pandemic that has spread across the country. The Bangladeshi government subsequently halted administering the first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine after India banned vaccine exports. In June, the vaccination drive resumed in parts of the country with the China-donated Sinopharm vaccine. Bangladesh has so far received around 25 million Sinopharm vaccine doses from China.