Bangladesh may get 1m Oxford vaccine doses soon from COVAX

Bangladesh is likely to receive one million Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine doses under the COVAX system in July.

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 6 July 2021, 05:24 AM
Updated : 6 July 2021, 05:24 AM

Separately, it may receive an unspecified consignment of Oxford vaccine doses from the Serum Institute of India in August, according to Health Minister Zahid Maleque.

“The local representative of the Serum Institute said they'll start sending vaccine doses in August. Though they haven't mentioned the number of doses to be sent, they assured us it won't be a small consignment," he said. 

Bangladesh started its mass vaccination campaign in February, using the COVISHIELD vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and Anglo-Swedish company AstraZeneca. But the programme was subsequently halted after India banned vaccine exports to tackle its own crisis.

The inoculation drive later resumed after the country received consignments of Sinopharm and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines.

As of now, 10 million doses of Oxford vaccine arrived from India. According to the Directorate General of Health Services, 5.8 million people took the first dose of the Oxford vaccine as of Sunday.

Bangladesh needs an additional 1.5 million doses to administer the second dose to those who have received the first since the beginning of the vaccination drive.

"Those awaiting for the second shot will get it soon as new consignments are coming. There's nothing to worry about,” Maleque said.

On Nov 5, Bangladesh arranged an agreement for the purchase of 30 million Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines from the Serum Institute of India. The government paid for 15 million doses of the vaccine in advance.

Despite the agreement, the Serum Institute has not met their scheduled shipments. Beximco Pharmaceuticals is the exclusive distributor of the Oxford vaccines from the Serum Institute. The company’s Chief Operating Officer Rabbur Reza said there was “no update” on the arrival of vaccine doses.