Bangladesh to receive 3M doses of Moderna vaccine as gift

By Md. Kamruzzaman

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AA) - Bangladesh will receive 3 million more Moderna COVID-19 vaccine doses from the US on Monday, officials said.

In a note to the media, the Bangladeshi Health Ministry on Sunday said that Health Minister Zahid Maleque would receive the consignment at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in capital Dhaka at 7:20 p.m. local time [1320 GMT].

On Saturday, US Ambassador in Bangladesh Earl R. Miller said on Twitter: “Pleased to announce another gift of 3 million doses of Moderna COVID-19 vaccine coming to Flag of Bangladesh from the American people via #COVAX”.

Earlier this month, Bangladesh had also received 2.5 million Moderna COVID-19 vaccine doses as a gift from the US.

Besides, in the last two days, the South Asian nation with nearly 165 million population received 2 million doses of China’s Sinopharm vaccine commercially while Beijing is likely to gift one million more jabs.

“China to gift 1 million more vaccines to our Bangladeshi brothers and sisters in their fight against the pandemic,” Hualong Yan, minister counselor and deputy chief of mission at Chinese Embassy in Dhaka, said in a social media post on Friday.

Previously, China also gifted 1.1 million Sinopharm vaccine doses to Bangladesh.

Citing official sources, Prothom Alo, a local newspaper, reported that by the first week of September, Bangladesh will receive a total of 20 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines under the COVAX facility, a global alliance, and from China and Russia.