Japan will send more than three million doses of AstraZeneca corona vaccine under Covax facilities in phases, Foreign Minister Abdul Momen said.
“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) on Saturday.
Dr Momen said, earlier Japan said they would send 2.9 milion doses of vaccine to Bangladesh but later they added 0.15 milion more doses that now raised the total volume to around 3.05 milion 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).
