Japan expects to send another 1.4m COVID vaccine jabs to Bangladesh in August

Bangladesh received another 616,780 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine from Japan under the global COVID-19 vaccine-sharing initiative COVAX.

Staff Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 3 August 2021, 03:19 PM
Updated : 3 August 2021, 04:09 PM

It is the third such shipment sent from the East Asian country.

A Cathay Airways jet carrying the vaccines arrived at Dhaka’s Shahjalal International Airport at 3:15pm on Tuesday, the Japanese Embassy in Dhaka said in a statement.

Japan has now sent a total of 1,643,300 jabs to Bangladesh under the COVAX facility to replenish the South Asian country's vaccine stocks. The island nation is planning to send another 1.4 million doses this month, according to officials.

Japanese Ambassador in Dhaka Ito Naoki handed over the vaccines to Syed Mojibul Huq, Additional Secretary to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

“We'll provide Bangladesh three million doses of vaccine. We're wholeheartedly trying to dispatch the rest of the vaccines within this month,” said Naoki.

Bangladesh began its mass COVID vaccination drive with AstraZeneca shots from the Serum Institute of India in February.

Bangladesh reached an agreement with the organisation for the purchase of 30 million doses, but, after the first 7 million doses arrived, India halted exports as it struggled to deal with the Delta variant of the novel coronavirus. The Indian government had also sent 3.2 million doses as gifts before shipments were cut off.

Bangladesh then turned to China to procure more vaccines. It also received shipments of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines under the COVAX programme.

The government resumed administering the second dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine on Monday after a long delay due to shortages. As of Aug 1, more than 1.52 million people were waiting to get their second dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine, according to government data.

“We are delighted by imagining the elated faces of 1.5 million people who have been waiting a long time to get the second dose of the vaccine,” Naoki said while highlighting his country’s efforts to help mitigate the vaccine shortage in Bangladesh.

He outlined Japan's hopes that fair, equitable and comprehensive access to vaccines will be ensured and reiterated its support for Bangladesh in the fight against COVID-19.

“We hope our Bangladeshi friends will have vaccine jabs as soon as possible. We're fighting the adversity of the COVID-19 pandemic together and we're standing by you as friends."