Covid-19 vaccine: 20 lakh Sinopharm doses from Beijing to reach Dhaka at 1am Saturday

Twenty lakh doses of Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine will arrive in Bangladesh around 1:00am on Saturday.

A flight carrying the vaccines departed Beijing International Airport at 8:45 pm this evening, said Hualong Yan, the deputy chief of mission at the Chinese Embassy in Dhaka.

"2 million Sinopharm vaccines of commercial purchase departed Beijing International Airport at 8:45 pm this evening and is expected to arrive around 1:00 am Dhaka time," Hualong Yan said in a Facebook post tonight.

Bangladesh procured 1.5 crore doses of Sinopharm vaccine and was supposed to get it in three months.

The government has already resumed vaccination in all district hospitals and 40 centres across the capital with 11 lakh doses of the Sinopharm vaccine gifted by the Chinese government.

The country has so far inoculated less than three percent of its population. Its vaccination campaign, which started on February 7, stumbled due to suspension of vaccine supply by the Serum Institute of India amid a surge in cases and deaths in that country.

Bangladesh and Serum had an agreement that the latter would ship three crore shots of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine to Bangladesh in phases between January and June.

Serum delivered the first consignment of 50 lakh doses in January, but shipped only 20 lakh the following month. No shipment has been made since. Besides, India sent 3.3 million doses as gift to Bangladesh.

Amid a fast depleting vaccine stock, Bangladesh suspended administering the first dose of the vaccine on April 26. The registration process for vaccination was suspended nine days later.