A consignment of five million doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca ‘Covishield’ vaccine manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII) has arrived in Dhaka from India.

This is the first consignment of the 30 million doses of ‘Covishield’ purchased from India. Bangladesh would get the vaccines in six phases as every consignment will carry 5 million vaccine doses per month. 

A special flight carrying the 5 million Covishield vaccine doses reached Dhaka at around 11:10 on Monday, Airport sources said.

On 21 January, Bangladesh received two million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine as a gift from India, with the country planning to begin its mass vaccination early February.

On December 13, an agreement was signed for purchasing 30 million COVID-19 vaccine doses developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca.

Under the agreement, Bangladesh government will buy 30 million vaccines from the Serum Institute of India through its local vendor Beximco Pharmaceuticals Limited.

On November 5, a tripartite Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed for collecting three crore vaccine doses from the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca. The MoU was signed among the Bangladesh Government, Beximco Pharmaceuticals Ltd (BPL) and the Serum Institute of India (SII).

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will inaugurate the country's vaccination programme through a video conferencing on January 27 as a nurse will receive the vaccine on the first on the day at Kurmitola General Hospital in the capital.

Later around 25 frontliners will receive the vaccine on the same day.