Shawdesh Desk:

Bangladesh is set to receive 2.5 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine developed by US biotech company Moderna under the Covax facility, a global vaccine alliance.

Covax has written to the government, saying the shots will be sent as part of its commitment.

Confirming the news, Health Minister Zahid Maleque said that the doses are expected to arrive within seven to 10 days.

“Covax has recently informed us about the Moderna vaccine shots. We will receive those in seven to 10 days,” Health Minister Zahid Maleque said on Friday night.

This will be the second batch of vaccine for Bangladesh under COVAX, which is expected to give the country 68 million doses, with two shots per person, to cover 20 percent of the population.

The first batch of 100,620 Pfizer-BioNTech doses under COVAX arrived on May 31 and Bangladesh on Jun 21 began administering the first doses of the vaccine experimentally.

The Moderna vaccine, developed in partnership with the US National Institutes of Health, is administered in two shots 28 days apart.