AMN/ WEB DESK
Bangladesh received the third consignment of the AstraZeneca (AZ) vaccine as a gift from Japan on Tuesday. The consignment of more than 6 lakh doses was received at Hazrat Shahjalal International airport in Dhaka by the Japanese Ambassador to Bangladesh Naoki Ito and other senior officials of Bangladesh government. Since July 24, Bangladesh has received more than 1.6 million doses of the AZ vaccine from Japan as gift under the COVAX facility of the WHO out of the total 3 million committed under the scheme.
Ramping up its effort to fight the Corona pandemic, the government has announced that it will launch a massive vaccination drive between 7-14 August to vaccinate 10 million people in a week’s time. The vaccination drive will be conducted at 14,000 centres across the country at the union and ward level. Foreign Minister Dr A K Abdul Momen has said that Bangladesh has enough vaccines in stock to conduct the exercise and it is expecting more vaccines from various sources this month.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh Medical Research Council (BMRC) has granted ethical permission for human trial of the vaccine named COVAXIN manufactured by Bharat Biotech of India. However, the final approval is awaited from the Directorate General of Drug Administration (DGDA) of Bangladesh before the trial could be started.
COVID 19 pandemic claimed another 235 lives in Bangladesh on Tuesday taking the death toll to 21,397. The country also recorded 15,776 new cases of COVID 19 infection. The sample positivity rate declined slightly from 29.91 percent on Monday to 28.54 percent on Tuesday.