Bangladesh to receive over 1.0 million AstraZeneca vaccines from US
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Bangladesh is set to receive more than 1 million doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine from the United States under the global programme, COVAX.
Announcing the development on Friday, Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen said the consignment of a little over 1 million jabs will arrive 'soon', according to bdnews24.com.
Bangladesh started its mass vaccination campaign last February using COVISHIELD, the vaccine developed by the UK's University of Oxford and Anglo-Swedish company AstraZeneca.
Despite an agreement to buy 30 million jabs, its manufacturer Serum Institute of India had only sent 7 million doses in two shipments before India froze exports to tackle its own devastating crisis.
It prompted the government to halt the first dosing of the vaccine while many who received the first shot were not given the second one.
The government subsequently started scrambling for the Chinese and Russian vaccines. However, there is no alternative for those who have already taken the first dose of the COVISHIELD vaccine.