Bangladesh Health Minister Zahid Maleque said on Saturday that a total of six million doses of Covid-19 vaccine developed by US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer will arrive in the country under the COVAX facility early next month.

He said the Bangladesh government has received a letter on Friday from the World Health Organization containing the good news.

Five million doses of the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine will arrive in the country by the current month-end or the beginning of next month, he said.

"We are expecting that within next one and half months, we would have one to one and a half crore (10-15 million) doses of vaccines in hand," Zahid Maleque said, according to The Daily Star.

Bangladesh had earlier relied on supplies of Covishield from Serum Institute of India as also the Indian government to vaccinate the vulnerable sections of its population.

However, Bangladesh’s vaccination drive was adversely hit after the Serum Institute of India could not keep its commitment to supplying doses of Covishield following the severe second wave of the Coronavirus infection in India. The Indian government had stopped SII from sending vaccines abroad due to shortage to shortage of jabs and to fulfill its priority of vaccinating the domestic population.

(SAM)