France has donated another 2.12 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to Bangladesh under the COVAX facility as a gesture of solidarity to the friendly country’s fight against Covid. The new doses have taken the number of Covid shots donated by the French government to Bangladesh to 5.38 million to date. An Emirates flight carrying the third consignment of 2,126,100 Covid jabs landed at Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka late on Monday night. Read: Govt. will wait for a week to take further decision on Covid-19 curbs: Farhad  The first consignment of 2.06 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine from France arrived in Dhaka on November 29, 2021, while the second consignment of 1,197,600 jabs reached Bangladesh on December 19. All the three consignments were sent from France to Bangladesh under the global sharing platform COVAX . The government of France has made the sharing of Covid vaccines one of its priorities, in solidarity with the countries hit by the pandemic and in order to help accelerate the vaccination coverage on a global scale. 

The government will resume administering the second dose of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines from Monday in Dhaka division. Dr Shamsul Haque, director of the vaccination program of the Health Department informed this in the regular Covid health bulletin on Sunday It will be administered in all centres across the country from August 7. Also read: Preparations underway to vaccinate 1 crore people by next week: Minister He said SMS will be sent to the people who have taken the first dose of AstraZeneca. However, those who have received SMS for the second dose earlier but have not been vaccinated will not need the SMS to take the second shot. On Saturday, Bangladesh received the second consignment of AstraZeneca vaccine doses from Japan under the COVAX facility. The second consignment contains 7,81,320 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine. The third consignment that will contain 6,16,780 doses of the vaccine is scheduled to arrive here on Tuesday. In this regard, the director said, "We'll be able to vaccinate those waiting for the second dose of this vaccine." The government started mass vaccination through Covishield (AstraZeneca) vaccine in last February.  Also read: Covid-19: Bangladesh lowers vaccination age to 25 However, 15,21,000 people did not get the second dose of  after the stock of the jabs purchased from India ran out. Around 58 lakh people received the first dose and 42 lakh people took the 2nd dose of the vaccine so far.

Bangladesh will resume vaccination with Astrazeneca shots within the next few days, said Health Minister Zahid Maleque. “We’ll resume vaccination with Astrazeneca jabs within the next 2-1 days. Those who failed to take the second dose after getting the first one will be able to get it now,” he said. The minister said this while speaking to reporters at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport after receiving the second consignment of AstraZeneca vaccine doses from Japan. He said the government currently has a stock of more than 10 lakh doses of Astrazeneca vaccine. Read: Covid kills 218 more in Bangladesh as its catastrophe continues “We’ll get 6 lakh doses more of the vaccine on Aug 3,” Zahid added.

Bangladesh will resume vaccination with Astrazeneca jabs soon, said DGHS spokesperson Prof Dr Nazmul Islam on Wednesday. “We had to stop giving Astrazeneca vaccine to people halfway through due to its short supply. But we’re hopeful of resuming its rollout soon as we’ve received a supply from Japan,” he said during the regular briefing of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS). "We’ll get more AstraZeneca supplies within a few days. The wait of those who’re worried about the second dose will hopefully end soon,” he added. Read: Vaccination at union level to start on Aug 7: Home Minster Responding to a question on why the vaccination drive with Astrazeneca has not resumed yet, the spokesperson said,” We’re waiting for the arrival of further supplies.” Bangladesh received the first consignment of 2,45,200 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine from Japan on July 24. Read: Age limit to be lowered to 18 for Covid vaccination: Health DG The vaccine doses came under the COVAX facility. Japanese Ambassador to Bangladesh Naoki Ito earlier said Japan would provide a total of 3 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine to Bangladesh.