Another two million doses of China’s Sinopharm coronavirus vaccine has arrived in Bangladesh.
The first of these shipments, consisting of one million doses, arrived on a Biman Bangladesh flight on Saturday night. The second shipment, containing another million doses, arrived at 3 am on Sunday.
Officials from the health ministry, led by an additional secretary from the directorate general of health services, received the vaccine at the airport, reports bdnews24.com.
“Another two million doses of the Sinopharm vaccine have arrived in Bangladesh. China has sent a total of 5.1 million doses of the vaccine to Bangladesh,” Dr Md Shamsul Haque, line director (MNC&AH) at the Directorate General of Health Services, told bdnews24.com.
Bangladesh signed a deal with China for 15 million doses of the vaccine at $10 per shot. But Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal recently stated that China was sending the shots at a lower price than previously agreed upon.
Two shipments, totalling two million doses, of the Sinopharm vaccine arrived in Bangladesh on Jul 3 and Jul 4. The government initially said these doses had arrived as part of the purchase deal, but later changed their statement.
"We signed a deal for 15 million doses, but those two million doses were sent by China as a gift,” Additional Cabinet Secretary Shamsul Arefin said.
In light of this gift, Bangladesh has agreed to buy another 2 million doses of the vaccine.
Before the purchase agreement was signed, Bangladesh received 1.1 million doses of the same vaccine from China as a gift. So far, 4.1 million doses of this vaccine have arrived in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh had previously purchased the Oxford AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine from the Serum Institute of India, but the agreement for the doses fell through after the pandemic situation in India worsened dramatically and put a halt to vaccine exports.
