20 lakh doses of Sinopharm vaccine to arrive in Dhaka tonight

A consignment of 20 lakh doses of the Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine reached Dhaka from China early Tuesday.

A flight of Biman Bangladesh Airlines landed at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport at 2.30 am Tuesday.

Officials from Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) received the vaccine consignment at the airport.

Dr Mowla Baksh Chaudhury, program manager of DGHS' Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI), confirmed the matter Tuesday morning.

The vaccine doses were being preserved in the warehouse of Beximco Pharmaceuticals, he said.

Earlier, on August 28 evening, the fifth batch of 6,34,920 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine arrived in Dhaka from Japan. With this shipment, the total amount of vaccine delivery from Japan to Bangladesh, under the WHO-COVAX programme, topped 30 lakh.

Meanwhile, Maidul Islam, public relations officer of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, said Monday a shipment of 10 lakh Pfizer Covid vaccine doses, which was supposed to arrive that evening from the US under the COVAX facility, would reach Dhaka on Wednesday.