DHAKA,  – Health and Family Welfare Minister Zahid Maleque today said all people will be vaccinated as there is no scarcity of COVID-19 vaccines. “We have distributed required number of vaccines to all designated hospitals across the country… if necessary, we will provide more vaccines to these hospitals to bring all people under vaccination coverage,” he told a function of Dhaka Dental College here, an official release said.

The minister said Bangladesh has so far brought 70 lakh COVID-19 vaccines and 22 lakh more vaccines will be brought by February 22. “We will collect vaccine every month to make countrywide vaccination coverage a success,” he added.

According the health ministry, 50 lakh Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines purchased by the government reached Dhaka on January 25 as part of a tripartite memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed on November 5 and a subsequent agreement on December 13 among Bangladesh Government, Beximco Pharmaceuticals Ltd (BPL) and the Serum Institute of India (SII).

The agreement ensures availability of three crore COVID-19 vaccine doses in phases from the Serum Institute. Bangladesh received its first ever COVID-19 vaccine consignment on January 21 (Thursday) as India sent 20 lakh doses of vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca as gift.