Bangladesh receives another 1.7m Sinopharm Covid vaccine jabs

Another 1.7 million doses of China's Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine have reached Bangladesh to aid the country's fight against the coronavirus pandemic. The shipment arrived on Tuesday as part of the global vaccine-sharing platform COVAX, according to Dr Mowla Baksh, a DGHS programme manager.

The vaccines are being kept at Beximco's warehouse, he said. Bangladesh has grown increasingly dependent on the Chinese vaccine to conduct its mass vaccination drive.

The government signed an agreement with the Chinese company to buy 75 million doses of the vaccine. Seven million doses have arrived under the agreement, while the country received an additional 1.1 million jabs as a gift from China. In total, the country has received 9.8 million doses of the vaccine so far.

The South Asian nation is expecting to add to its vaccine stocks with a few more shipments from China in the next few days, said Baksh.

"Another 61,200 doses will come on Aug 12 followed by the arrival of 1 million more doses as gifts from China on Aug 13. A third shipment of 1 million jabs will be here a day later. In all, Bangladesh will get 5,461,200 doses of the vaccine in the coming days.”