Japan to send over 3m doses of AstraZeneca vaccine: Momen

Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen on Saturday said Japan will send more than three million doses of AstraZeneca COVID vaccine under COVAX facilities in phases.

“On behalf of Bangladesh, I would like to express our gratitude to Japan government and its people for the (vaccine) supply in this critical period,” he said.

The foreign minister made the remark after receiving 2,45,200 doses of Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine as the first consignment from Japanese ambassador to Bangladesh Naoki Ito at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA) here.

Dr Momen said, earlier Japan said they would send 29 lakh doses of vaccine to Bangladesh but later they added 1.5 lakh more doses that now raised the total volume to around 30.5 lakh doses.

The foreign minister also revealed that the second consignment consisting nearly five lakh of doses of such vaccine will arrive here on Friday next.

Dr Momen said this consignment of vaccine is important for Bangladesh as around 1.5 million people are waiting for the second dose of this Oxford made vaccine.

Bangladesh has so far received 1.2 crore doses of AstraZeneca vaccine from the Serum Institute of India (SII).

The foreign minister said the government has already made a good lineup of getting more COVID-19 vaccines from different sources under COVAX along with commercial purchase to ensure steady supply of jabs for the countrymen.

“We hope there will be no shortage of vaccine in the country in next severer months,” he said.

COVAX, a global alliance, is a worldwide initiative aimed at equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines directed by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.

However, the foreign minister said Bangladesh is looking forward to go for vaccine co-production in Bangladesh to vaccinate 80 percent of its population.