Bangladesh will buy 15 million doses of Sinopharm vaccines from China and first consignment may arrive in June, Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen said.
He said that there have been positive discussions between the two countries and a deal is almost final. The total consignment will arrive in three phases — five millions in each month of June, July and August.
The minister was talking to reporters following a meeting with UN General Assembly President Volkan Bozkır at the Foreign Service Academy on Tuesday, according to media reports.
Abdul Momen said that at a telephonic conversation last week with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi the country vowed to ensure steady flow of vaccine.
“He (Chinese foreign minister) told me China considers Bangladesh as a friendly country and is ready to provide as many as vaccine we need,” Momen said referring to his recent telephone conversation with Wang Yi.
During the telephone conversation with Momen on Friday, Wang Yi, who is also the State Councilor of China, also announced that China has decided to provide 600,000 more Covid-19 vaccine doses to Bangladesh as a second batch of gift, reports BSS.
On May 12, China handed over first batch of 500,000 doses of its Sinopharm vaccine to Bangladesh as gift while Dhaka is keeping its efforts on globally to get access to enough inoculation.
Bangladesh is also working on co-production of Sinovac, another Chinese vaccine. A team from China will visit Bangladesh soon to see the feasibility of vaccine production, he said.
In the coming days vaccine supply will not be a problem, the foreign minister said adding that discussion with Russia for vaccine is also at the final stage. The country will also get vaccine from Covax, he added.
