India to provide additional Covid-19 vaccines as 'gift': health minister

India to provide additional Covid-19 vaccines as 'gift': health minister

India will soon supply some shots of Covid-19 vaccine, in addition to those from Serum Institute, Health Minister Zahid Maleque said today.

"We will get some additional vaccines as gift from the Indian government. The number has not been decided yet. May be, those will reach before Serum Institute's vaccine, being brought in by Beximco," Zahid Maleque said at a 'Meet the Reporters' event organised by Dhaka Reporters Unity.

He also reassured that the first consignment of three crore doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, manufactured by Serum Institute of India, will reach the country on January 25 or 26.

Besides, the government has submitted necessary documents to the World Health Organization (WHO) to receive eight lakh shots of Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine.

"We have necessary storage capacity for this. We are going to arrange additional capacity (for storing vaccines) via Unicef," the minister added.

mj/