The Cabinet Committee on Public Purchase on Wednesday approved a proposal of the Health Service Division to procure 60 million doses of Chinese Sinopharm vaccine as the government is trying to gear up its nationwide vaccination drive. According to officials, the vaccine doses will arrive in the country by November this year. Read: Pragmatic talks underway over vaccine procurement But the price of the vaccine doses was not disclosed as there is a non-disclosure agreement with China in this regard, they said.   “We hope the vaccine doses will reach the country by November this year. Since we’ve a non-disclosure agreement, we can’t disclose the price,” Shamsul Arefin, additional secretary of the Cabinet Division, told reporters while briefing them on the issue.  The virtual meeting, chaired by Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal, also approved nine other procurement proposals of different ministries.  The finance minister said, “We’ve calculated that we need to vaccinate some 13.82 crore people. So, we have to buy 27.65 crore vaccine doses. We’ve 2.55 crore vaccine doses in our hands and the remaining amounts need to be collected.”   Earlier, Bangladesh purchased 15 million doses of Sinopharm Covid vaccine from China at a rate lower than what was set in an earlier deal.   Read: Govt. mishandled procurement of Covid-19 vaccine, allege BNP Bangladesh earlier received two million doses of vaccine as a gift from China. On May 27 this year, the same committee approved the procurement of the same Chinese jabs at $10 per dose. China was then upset by the disclosure of the price saying it was a breach of a non-disclosure clause agreed by the two governments.

As the Coronavirus infection cases keep rising in Bangladesh, 26 more deaths and 1,719 new cases were reported in 24 hours till Tuesday morning, mounting concerns among people.

Bangladesh's daily Covid-19 cases have continued to pass the 1,000-mark for the last three days. The country recorded 1,066 new cases in the last 24 hours until early Friday.

Bangladesh recorded six more Coronavirus related deaths and 635 new cases in the last 24 hours until Friday morning, registering a rise in daily infection rate.

Bangladesh recorded eight more Covid-19-related deaths and 326 fresh cases in the last 24 hours till Sunday morning, showing a little bit of rise in infection rate.

Some 74,000 people have got registered for vaccination until Wednesday, said ABM Khurshid Alam, Director General of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).

Health workers in Bangladesh will not be able to leave their workplaces until February 10 as the government is set to roll out its nationwide vaccination campaign, said the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) on Monday.

The first batch of coronavirus vaccine arrived in Bogura on Friday.