The first consignment of COVID-19 vaccines reached Bangladesh from India this morning.
An Air India plane carrying the vaccines from Mumbai landed at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport at about 11:30am
Earlier in the morning, the plane carrying the first consignment left Mumbai for Dhaka, according to Indian External Affairs Ministry spokesman Anurag Srivastava.
"Next stop Bangladesh! Consignment of Indian made Covid vaccines takes off for Bangladesh! #VaccineMaitri #NeighbourhoodFirst," he twitted in the morning along with relevant images.
The Maldives and Bhutan were the first recipients of India’s coronavirus vaccine earlier on Wednesday.
Bangladesh is scheduled to get 2 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines from India as a ‘gift’, with the government expecting to get another 5 million doses of the vaccine developed by Oxford-AstraZeneca under a purchase deal with Serum Institute of India and its local vendor Beximco.
Officials said they were planning to begin the nationwide vaccination from early February after an experimental vaccination of about 500 healthcare providers in the capital for a week.
Health secretary Abdul Mannan on Wednesday said that four hospitals in the capital had been selected for experimental vaccination of healthcare providers before rolling out the vaccine for mass immunisation across the country in early February.
mj/
