Shawdesh Desk:

Bangladesh received another batch of 10 lakh Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccines from China on Friday (Aug 13) evening.

The consignment sent as a gift from the Chinese government to Bangladesh.

According to officials, a chartered flight of Biman Bangladesh airlines carrying 10 lakh doses of vaccines in 57 boxes arrived at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on Friday evening. It also carried 4.1 tonnes of vaccine syringe in 313 cartoons.

With this, China so far gifted 21 lakh doses of Sinopharm vaccines as gift.

Officials said another chartered flight of Biman Bangladesh will depart Dhaka Saturday (Aug 14) morning for Tianjin International Airport in China to bring more vaccines.

This week, Bangladesh also received over 34 lakh doses of Sinopharm vaccines under the international vaccine facility COVAX..

Bangladesh and China are set also to ink a coproduction deal in Dhaka on August 16 under which the Incepta Pharmaceuticals will start producing Sinopharm within next couple of months.

Meantime, the Bangladesh government on August 11 approved a proposal to purchase another six crores more doses of the Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine from China.

Earlier, the government earlier paid China for 1.5 crore doses of the Sinopharm vaccine. Of these 70 lakh doses already arrived in Bangladesh.