Bangladesh expects Covid-19 vaccination of over 40 million people by July with 30-million doses from the Serum Institute of India and 10.9 million from the Covax facility.
Health minister Zahid Maleque disclosed this at a press briefing after holding a vaccine deployment and management-related meeting at the secretariat on Wednesday.
The 10.9-million doses of AstraZeneca jab manufactured by AstraZeneca/Oxford and licensed by Serum Institute through Covax facility are scheduled to arrive between February-March and April-May period, revealed a first-round allocation plan of vaccine through Covax.
A document disclosed that a total of 237-million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine from Serum Institute would be allocated among 142 countries in the first round.
The first round of allocation, an exceptional distribution of 1.2-million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, anticipated for delivery in the first quarter of 2021, was announced in early February.
These doses were reflected in the allocation plan but were not part of the first-round distribution, it cited.
Mr Maleque, however, said a vaccine update meeting would be held in every 15 days to avoid any coordination problem in the vaccination process.
"So far, 4.58-million people have got registered for vaccination and over 3.3 million have got vaccine," he told the briefing.
"In the second phase," he said, "all teachers, a section of students, foreigners living in Bangladesh, people working at ports and star hotels will come under vaccination."
Mr Maleque further said that many development partners agreed to provide financial aid amounting $3.0 billion to buy more vaccine in future.
The age limit of 40 years would be relaxed when adequate vaccines are available here, he added.
