Health Minister Zahid Maleque on Wednesday said the drive to administer Covid-19 booster doses will in next seven to ten days. “Currently, we have 4.5 crore doses of vaccine in stock, and the drive to inoculate booster doses can be started within seven to ten days,” he said at a programme while receiving 80 lakh doses of AstraZeneca vaccine donated by Japan and UK through the global COVAX facility. Read: National Committee recommends booster dose for above 60 citizens, frontliners Japanese Ambassador to Bangladesh Naoki Ito and British High Commissioner to Bangladesh Robert Chatterton Dickson handed over the donations to the health minister at State Guest House Padma. Maleque said “Japan is a close friend of Bangladesh since the Liberation War while the British government stands by Bangladesh in any crisis of the country. So, the vaccine doses received from the two countries will strengthen us to fight Covid-19.” So far, three cases of Omicron variant of coronavirus have been detected in the country and all of them have been put under quarantine, he said adding “They are doing well and undergoing treatment.” He also urged the people to abide by the health guidelines and get Covid jabs. On Sunday, the National Technical Advisory Committee (NTAC) on Covid-19 recommended booster shots to the citizens above 60 and frontliners. The senior citizens and frontliners who got the two doses of vaccine six months ago will get the booster dose, the NTAC recommended at a meeting. It also suggested all to take steps to limit public gatherings, meetings and rallies to contain the spread of Omicron. On December 9, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Omicron is now present in 57 countries and asked all countries to stay alert about the new variant. Read: Booster dose in Bangladesh: Authorities asked to work on a precise guideline A WHO panel named the Coronavirus variant ‘Omicron’ and classified it as a highly transmissible virus of concern, the same category that includes the predominant delta variant, which is still a scourge driving higher cases of sickness and death in Europe and parts of the USA. Amid the growing concern over the new ‘Omicron’ variant of coronavirus, the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) suggested the implementation of 15 instructions to prevent the spread of the new variant and urged all concerned to take measures to enforce the instructions. After Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the Covid-19 vaccination programme in Bangladesh on January 27, the health ministry rolled out the inoculation drive at five government hospitals in Dhaka on January 28.

Japanese Ambassador to Bangladesh Naoki Ito provides the centrepiece, as experts from Bangladesh and Japan are brought together (in the safety of cyberspace) by Cosmos Foundation, for a dialogue on the bilateral relations between two important  partners in growth, development, and increasingly trade.   The keynote address at the online symposium titled “Bangladesh-Japan Relations: Prognosis for the Future”, will be delivered by Ambassador Ito, who has now served in the post for slightly more than 18 months.  Read: Japan to send 2.9 mn doses of AstraZeneca vaccine for Bangladesh: Envoy A key thrust of the ambassador’s address will be the identification of 5 challenges, that he believes must be overcome in order for the bilateral relationship to fully thrive in the years ahead.   Chairman of Cosmos Foundation Enayetullah Khan will set the stage in his opening remarks for a richly engaging discussion, that premieres tonight (Sunday, 8PM BST) on the Foundation’s Facebook page.   As is by now customary for the Foundation’s flagship events, chairing the proceedings will be the renowned scholar-diplomat, as well as adviser on foreign affairs to the last caretaker government Dr Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury.    Read: ‘Thanks Japan’, Dr Momen says over vaccine supply  It would be the latest instalment in the Foundation’s ‘Ambassador Lecture Series,’ where a foreign emissary based in Dhaka is invited to deliver a keynote, before engaging at length with a high-level panel of experts, who are chosen for their particular knowledge and experience relating to the day’s topic.   For the edition premiering tonight – and thereafter available for viewing at any time - the expert panel comprises Md Abul Kalam Azad, Special Envoy, Climate Vulnerable Forum; Hayakawa Yuho, Chief Representative, JICA Bangladesh Office; Dr Salehuddin Ahmed, former Governor, Bangladesh Bank; Prof Masaaki Ohashi, Professor, University of the Sacred Heart, Tokyo; Manzurul Huq, columnist, writer and academic; Prof Takahara Akio, Dean, Graduate School of Public Policy, the University of Tokyo and Ambassador (Retd) Tariq A Karim, Honorary Advisor Emeritus, Cosmos Foundation.     Read:Cosmos Dialogue on Dhaka-Washington ties premieres Saturday on Facebook  Cosmos Foundation is the philanthropic arm of Bangladeshi conglomerate the Cosmos Group. Registered to operate under a trust structure since 2016, it is committed to bringing together the finest minds from home and abroad onto common fora - such that they elicit strategic insights and policy solutions for the most pressing issues facing Bangladesh, as it charts its course towards a future that is ever-brighter.    Don’t forget to catch the premiere via Facebook of the entire discussion tonight, at 8pm BST. Thereafter it will be available for viewing entirely at your discretion and convenience, from Cosmos Foundation’s Facebook page, as well as the www.facebook.com/unbnewsroom page.  You can also catch up on previous editions. 

President of Japan’s Energy for a New Era (JERA) Satoshi Onoda and founder Chairman of Summit Group Muhammed Aziz Khan met Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina here on Monday.

Japanese Ambassador to Bangladesh Naoki Ito on Tuesday said the partnership between Bangladesh and Japan has shown a remarkable progress represented by the mega projects.