The first consignment of Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, produced by Serum Institute of India (SII), will reach Dhaka on January 25 or 26, health minister Zahid Maleque said this afternoon.
Meanwhile, the government is likely to allow private companies to import and distribute Covid-19 vaccines, he said in a briefing at his office at the Secretariat, following a meeting with the high-level committee led by the Cabinet Secretary, on upcoming vaccination campaign.
"We have been informed by Beximco that the first lot of vaccines will reach country on January 25 [or] 26. We have arranged transportation to carry the lot… In each district level storage, we can store more than seven lakh shots of vaccines and more than two lakhs in each upazilla," the minister said.
The government has trained around 42,000 healthcare workers and volunteers across the country to start vaccination likely from the first week of February.
Registration online via an app to be vaccinated will be launched from January 26.
About vaccine import by private companies, the minister said the government will set a price and decide where the vaccines will be supplied.
