Bangladesh will Thursday receive two million doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca’s Covishield, manufactured in India by the Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII), as a “gift” from India as the Narendra Modi government begins to roll out shipments to its immediate neighbours.
A special Indian flight carrying the consignment will land at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka on Thursday .
The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, which can be stored at refrigerator temperature, is widely viewed as a more viable option for many poorer nations than shots from Pfizer and Moderna which need to be stored at very low temperatures.
India has received requests from dozens of nations, including urgent appeals from Brazil, to begin exports of the vaccine from the Serum Institute of India centre in the western city of Pune.
Bangladesh, a country of more than 160 million people, in November
signed a preliminary agreement to buy 30 million doses of the shot from
Serum - the world's biggest vaccine maker by volume.
India began giving shots of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, as well as another developed by Bharat Biotech, to health workers on Saturday.
The country plans to start exporting Bharat Biotech's vaccine at a later stage.
Serum Institute of India has partnered with AstraZeneca, the Gates Foundation and the Gavi
vaccine alliance to produce more than a billion doses of the vaccine for
supply to lower-income countries. Brazil is expecting at least 2
million doses from Serum.
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