Japan has said “equitable and comprehensive” access to safe and effective vaccines will be ensured in Bangladesh.  “I would like to reiterate that Japan will stand by Bangladesh in the fight against Covid-19 and will work together to contain Covid-19,” said Japanese Ambassador to Bangladesh Ito Naoki. Read: Canada provides 2.2mn doses of AstraZeneca to Bangladesh On Tuesday, Bangladesh received 704,010 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine manufactured in Japan. This was delivered in addition to the 788,200 doses of vaccine that arrived on December 14, totalling approximately 1.5 million doses, said the Japanese Embassy in Dhaka on Wednesday. In July and August, the government of Japan provided over 3 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine to Bangladesh through the COVAX Facility to meet the urgent needs of the Bangladeshi people who had been long waiting for the AstraZeneca vaccine.  Read: Bangladesh gets more AstraZeneca doses from France Considering the fact that there are still many people who require vaccination in Bangladesh and in light of the important relationship between Japan and Bangladesh, the government of Japan decided to provide another 1.5 million vaccines to the people of Bangladesh.

The government of France has donated 1,197,600 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to Bangladesh under the Covax arrangement. The vaccine support from France came as a gesture of solidarity to the friendly country Bangladesh's fight against Covid-19 pandemic. Read: Japan to provide more AstraZeneca vaccines to Bangladesh Dec 21 An Emirates flight carried the consignment of 1,197600 doses of AstraZeneca doses that arrived at Shahjalal International Airport on Sunday. This is in addition to a consignment of 2.06 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine French gave to Bangladesh on November 29, 2021 through the Covax facility. Read:UK donates over 4mn AstraZeneca jabs to Bangladesh The government of France has made the sharing of Covid-19 vaccines one of its priorities, in solidarity with the countries hit by the pandemic and in order to help accelerate vaccination coverage on a global scale.

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.

The Malaysian government has provided over 5.59 lakh AstraZeneca vaccine doses to Bangladesh as a gesture of solidarity and support in the latter’s fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. Haznah Md. Hashim, High Commissioner of Malaysia to Bangladesh, handed over some token vaccine doses to Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen at a formal ceremony held at the State Guest House Padma on Tuesday. Secretary (East) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, senior officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and officials of the High Commission of Malaysia in Dhaka were present. Read: France donates 2.06 mln AstraZeneca vaccine doses to Bangladesh High Commissioner Hashim described the donation of 559,200 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines and medical equipment to the Government of Bangladesh as a testament to the close, warm and cordial relations existing between the two brotherly countries.  The High Commissioner also mentioned that Government of Malaysia prioritized Bangladesh for donating vaccines even with its limited inventory. 

The government of France has donated 2.06 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine to Bangladesh under the COVAX arrangement as a gesture of solidarity to the friendly country’s fight against Covid-19 pandemic. The French gesture covers a consignment containing 2,006,400 doses of vaccine as well as their transport to Dhaka through their own arrangement. French Ambassador to Bangladesh Jean-Marin Schuh handed over the token vaccine doses to Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen and Health Minister Zahid Maleque at a function held at State guesthouse Padma on Tuesday. Read: Bangladesh receives 1.5 mn doses of AstraZeneca from KSA as gift Through vaccine sharing, the relations between the two countries will further be strengthened, both sides noted. The announcement over donating vaccine came during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's recent visit to Paris recently. “We thank the French government and the people of France. I would like to say that I had never seen in the past the way they showed respect to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina this time during her visit. From the day one, they have really showed great respect to our Prime Minister,” Dr Momen said. The Foreign Minister said Sweden will also donate 5.30 lakh doses of AstraZeneca vaccine to Bangladesh. He appreciated the role of Bangladesh Health Minister saying he has done an excellent job under the leadership of Prime Minister in terms of dealing with the Covid-19 situation in the country. “He (Health Minister) stood like a solid rock under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina despite various criticism,” Dr Momen said. Read:Bangladesh receives 2 million more Covid-19 vaccine doses from China as gift The French Ambassador hoped that both the countries would soon be able to overcome the pandemic through shared efforts. He noted that Bangladesh government would allocate a part of these vaccine doses to the Rohingya population in the camps. The Health Minister thanked the French government for extending support to Bangladesh in such a time when the government of Bangladesh was taking due efforts to inoculate its total population. “It’ll help boost our vaccination efforts.”

After a vaccination drive at Korail slum in Dhaka, health authorities have started giving Covid jabs to the slum dwellers of Chattogram city on Sunday. Some 2,000 residents of Jhautala slum in Khulshi area will get the jabs under the programme which started around 2 pm, according to the Civil Surgeon’s office. The dwellers of all other slums in the city will be brought under the vaccination programme in phases, it said. Read:Covid jabs for city’s slum dwellers start on Tuesday: Health Minister Apart from the slum dwellers, the third gender  people will also be brought under the vaccination programme, and it will start on Monday. The dwellers of Jhautala slum will be allowed to get vaccinated without registration and the campaign will continue till Thursday. According to the Civil Surgeon office, the vaccination drive will continue till 5 pm, and a three-member medical team is there to provide vaccine doses to the slum dwellers. Dr Ilias Hossain, the District Civil Surgeon, said the Jhautala slum residents will be able to get their Covid shots on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Read:7.5 crore people to be fully vaccinated by Jan: Health Minister Already some 300 doses of Astrazeneca vaccine have been allocated for the transgender people  and the number of doses will be increased depending the number of vaccine seekers. The vaccination drive for the residents of Korail slum in Dhaka started on November 16. According to the slum census conducted by the Bangladesh Statistics Bureau (BSS), in 2014, some 1.28 lakh people are living in 2,216 slums in Chattogram city corporation area.

Bangladesh on Saturday received 10 lakh doses of AstraZeneca vaccine as part of commercial purchase from India. The consignment arrived at 17:40pm, said the Indian High Commission in Dhaka, mentioning that this is commercial supply against the Beximco’s purchase order. Bangladesh has so far received 8 million of Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine doses produced by Serum Institute of India (SII) through its contract. READ: Bangladesh to get 2 lakh AstraZeneca shots from Romania as gift Bangladesh also received 3.3 million doses of vaccine as a bilateral partnership gift.

Bangladesh will receive more than 2 lakh doses of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, as a gift, from the Maldives tonight. A bilateral agreement was signed between the Maldives' Health Minister Ahmed Naseem and Rear Admiral Mohammad Nazmul Hassan, the Bangladesh high commissioner to the archipelagic state, Wednesday. As a token of goodwill, the Maldives has gifted Bangladesh 201,800 vaccine doses.

Bangladesh will receive 7.90 lakh more  doses of AstraZeneca vaccine from Germany on Saturday. A cargo flight of Qatar Airlines carrying the vaccine doses will land at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport around 5 pm on Saturday, said officials at the Health Ministry. Read:Bangladesh receives 2.70 lakh AstraZeneca doses from Bulgaria German Ambassador to Bangladesh Achim Troster and Senior Secretary of the Director General of Health Services (DGHS) Lokman Hossain Miah will be present at the airport to receive the vaccine jabs.

Japanese Ambassador to Dhaka Naoki Ito has said they have planned to deliver another 634,920 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine on August 28 and fulfill their commitment of over 3 million doses to Bangladesh. On Saturday, Bangladesh received the fourth batch of vaccine - 781,440 doses of AstraZeneca – which was part of 3 million doses that the Japanese government will provide to Bangladesh through the COVAX Facility. Read: Bangladesh gets 7,81,440 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine from Japan Bangladesh received the first consignment of 245,200 doses, the second consignment of 781,320 doses and the third consignment of 616,780 doses which respectively arrived on July 24, July 31 and August 3, totaling 2,424,700 doses so far. “This is purely for the sake of the Bangladeshi people. We hope this vaccine support will contribute to the Bangladesh government’s efforts to prevent the spread of COVID-19,” he said. Read: Bangladesh to get 781,440 AstraZeneca doses from Japan Saturday Japan hopes that fair, equitable and comprehensive access to safe and effective vaccines will be ensured in Bangladesh. “I would like to reiterate that Japan will stand by Bangladesh in the fight against COVID-19 and will work together to contain COVID-19 as soon as possible,” said the Ambassador. Read: Over 1.6 million AstraZeneca doses received from Japan Bangladesh expressed heartfelt appreciation to the generous support from Japan noting that Japan is the best long-standing friend. Bangladesh wants to effectively utilize the vaccines from Japan and make best efforts for the quick and extensive rollout of the vaccines for the people of Bangladesh.