In light of the Covid-19 crisis causing calamity in the country, authorities are desperately attempting to continue the vaccination process that had previously been withheld due to shortage of doses.

Following the approval of the Moderna vaccines on June 29, by the Directorate General of Drug Administration (DGDA), Bangladesh received its first shipment of Moderna vaccines on Friday night from Washington DC under the Covax program.

The vaccines arrived at 11:30pm on Friday July 2 at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on a US Air-force cargo and was received by Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen and Health and Family Welfare Minister Zahid Malik from US Ambassador Earl Miller.

About 1.2 million of the 2.5 million doses arrived last night, while the rest are to arrive by Saturday July 3.

Bangladesh is also to receive 2 million doses of the Sinopharm vaccine from China, which are to arrive on Saturday midnight.

The government will resume the regular vaccination drive after getting these 4.5 million doses of US and Chinese vaccines, the Health Minister said via a video call.

There are eight approved vaccines to abate the effects of the virus in the country. Those eight being; Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, CoronaVac, Pfizer, Covishield, Sputnik V, AstraZeneca and Sinopharm.

Sunnews/NT