The government is going to purchase six more crore doses of Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine from China.
A proposal has been approved in this regard.
The approval was given at the meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Government Purchase Wednesday, said Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal.
The government earlier paid China for 1.5 crore doses of Sinopharm vaccine. Of these, 70 lakh doses have already arrived in the country.
Besides, 17 lakh more doses of Sinopharm reached Dhaka under COVAX facility and China sent 11 lakh doses of the vaccine as gifts to Bangladesh.
Currently, Sinopharm vaccine is being administered at the union level across the country.
BSS reports: Kamal said the government aims to vaccinate a total of around 13.82 crore people for which there is a need for around 27.64 crore doses of Covid-19 vaccines.
He said the government has currently around 2.55 crore doses of vaccines while the rest would have to be collected in phases.
Answering a question, he said that the price of the Sinopharm vaccines did not increase compared to the past while the negotiation is on to collect the rest of the required doses of vaccines from various sources.
Joining the briefing on virtual platform, Cabinet Division Additional Secretary Md Shamsul Arefin said that the government is expecting to receive these vaccines by November this year.
