Maldives gifts over 2 lakh AstraZeneca jabs to Bangladesh
The jabs are scheduled to arrive in Dhaka on Friday
Bangladesh is all set to receive more than 2 lakh doses of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, as a gift, from the Maldives.
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, on Wednesday.
The shots were handed over to the Bangladesh High Commission in the Maldives the same day.
Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel
As a token of goodwill, the Maldives has gifted Bangladesh 201,600 vaccine doses, which are scheduled to arrive at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka, via Doha on Friday, on a Qatar Airways flight.
The gift will strengthen the existing ties between the two countries, hoped the officials concerned.
Covid-19 infections are decreasing in the Maldives. The country has administered at least 733,220 doses of coronavirus jabs so far – enough vaccinations to cover 69% of its population, assuming every person needs two shots.
Bangladesh is now administering vaccines developed by four companies – AstraZeneca, Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, and Sinopharm.
The country has administered at least 53,016,220 doses of Covid-19 vaccines so far – enough to have vaccinated about 15.9% of its population – assuming every person needs two jabs.
Bangladesh has administered 7,759,714 shots of AstraZeneca as the first dose and 5,414,090 as the second dose so far.
