Staff Correspondent:

Two million free doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine arrived in Dhaka from India on Thursday.

A special flight of Air India carrying the vaccines took off from Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport at 8am and landed at Hazrat Shah Jalal International Airport (HSIA) at 11:20am.

Touhidul Islam, Director of HSIA Group Captain, said after completing some formalities, the vaccines will be stored in the EPI storage in Tejgaon.

According to the source, Health Minister Zahid Malique received the vaccines formally at state guest house Padma. A handover ceremony will be held there.

Bangladesh purchased 30 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca from Serum Institute of India.

The first shipment of imported doses – five million – is expected to arrive in Dhaka by Jan 25.