little over 10.081 million doses of the vaccine administered so far, says the DGHS

With only 118,918 doses left in stock, Bangladesh is slowly but surely running out of the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines.

Till now, 10,081,082 doses of the vaccine have been administered as of Wednesday, since the countrywide vaccination program began in February, according to a press release issued by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).

According to the DGHS, nearly 4.26 million people have received both the doses of the vaccine, while more than 1.55 million people have received only the first dose. On Wednesday, 3,568 people were given the second dose of the vaccine.

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The people who have only received the first dose still need the second dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine, since the World Health Organization (WHO) has not yet made a decision on administering two doses of Covid-19 vaccine from different companies.

Since the beginning of the vaccination program on February 7, administration of the shots has been taking place every day from 8:30am to 2:30pm.

However, administration of the first dose was suspended by the DGHS on April 25 due to the vaccine supply crisis, as the Serum Institute of India (SII), manufacturer and supplier of the AstraZeneca vaccine to Bangladesh, suspended export of the vaccine to meet the local demand, in light of the rapidly deteriorating situation of the pandemic in India. 

Registration for vaccination was halted in Bangladesh on May 2 for the same reason.