By Md. Kamruzzaman
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AA) – Japan has gifted over 781,000 more shots of Oxford-AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine to Bangladesh, the Bangladesh Embassy in Japan said in a statement late Friday.
"Today, the 4th batch of AstraZeneca vaccine has been dispatched from Japan ... and is scheduled to reach Dhaka on 21 August 2021," a Facebook post read.
"With this shipment, the total amount of dispatched vaccines from Japan as of today stands at over 2.4 million."
It added that the delivery is a part of Japan’s commitment of supplying over 3 million doses of vaccine under the WHO-led COVAX initiative, a global vaccine sharing program.
Earlier, Japan sent Bangladesh 616,780 shots on Aug. 3, 781,320 doses on July 31 and 245,200 doses on July 24.
Bangladesh has recorded over 1.45 million coronavirus cases and more than 25,000 related deaths.
The country of 165 million has administered at least 22.2 million vaccine shots, and 6.08 million people are fully vaccinated.
While educational institutes are shut for over one and a half year; lockdown restrictions of varying degrees, which had been in place for months due to surging cases amid the spread of Delta variant, were lifted on Aug. 11.