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3 million doses Sinopharm jab arrive


Published : 30 Jul 2021 09:18 PM | Updated : 31 Jul 2021 01:10 AM

Bangladesh received 3 million doses of Covid-19 Sinopharm vaccine bought from China last night.

The doses came in three shipments – one on Thursday night and the other two in the early hours of Friday, according to the Directorate General of Health Services.

With that, Bangladesh has so far received 8.1 million doses of Sinopharm vaccine.

The government earlier reduced the age limit of taking Covid-19 vaccine to 25 years in a bid to vaccinate more young people against the pandemic coronavirus.

From Thursday, Bangladeshi citizens aged 25 years and above were able to register for the jab through the government’s ‘surokkha.gov.bd’ website.

The government started the nationwide vaccination in February with the age limit of 40 years. Later it was cut to 35 years and 30 years.

Health Minister Zahid Maleque earlier announced that they would bring all above 18 years under the vaccine coverage gradually.

Besides, to bring more people under the vaccination programme, the government also decided to launch a campaign from August 7.

During the campaign, people will be able to walk-in with the NID card in the vaccine point close to their areas and take the jab.

The health ministry’s EPI that oversees that vaccination programme will set up the inoculation points in different areas in the city and villages.

Bangladesh started the nationwide vaccination against the pandemic coronavirus with the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine bought from the Serum Institute of India. By now, the government got vaccines from other sources such as Sinopharm, Moderna and Pfizer.

The Health Minister told journalists that they have secured a pledge of getting 210 million doses of vaccine by next year.

Of them, 30 million would come from China, 30 million from Oxford/ AstraZeneca, 70 million under the COVAX facility, 10 million from Russia and 70 million from Johnson and Johnson.

The Johnson and Johnson vaccine would come by the second quarter of the next year, he had said, adding that the target is to vaccinate 80 percent of the population by 2022.