India gifts Bangladesh 1.2 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine

Cox’s Bazar | Bangladesh

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

India gave 1.2 million free doses of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine to Bangladesh yesterday, its foreign minister said, as Dhaka urged New Delhi to maintain a regular supply of shots to battle the pandemic.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made the offering at the end of a two-day tour of Bangladesh to celebrate its 50th independence anniversary.

Meanwhile, UNICEF said it expects the Serum Institute of India (SII) to resume full deliveries of the AstraZeneca shot to it in May as part of a World Health Organization (WHO)-backed programme to supply coronavirus vaccines to poorer countries.

UNICEF is the distributing partner of the programme, run with the GAVI vaccine alliance.