More than 10 million people have registered for the Covid-19 vaccine under the government’s inoculation program, amid a spike in infections and deaths across the country due to the spread of the deadly Delta variant of the virus.

Describing it as a landmark for Bangladesh, the Department of Information and Communication Technology said in a statement that some 10,093,593 people had completed registration till 11:14pm on Wednesday.

With 210 new fatalities, the death toll from Covid-19 stood at 17,052 as of Wednesday, a day after the government decided to relax the nationwide strict lockdown for nine days ahead of Eid-ul-Azha.

The overall test positivity rate now stands at 14.92% while the mortality rate against the total number of cases detected so far is 1.61%.

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On Wednesday, 293 people received a second dose of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, taking the total to nearly 4.295 million. Meanwhile, a little over 1.525 million people received the first dose of the vaccine and are awaiting the second dose.

Additionally, 104,763 people received the first dose of the Sinopharm vaccine during the same period, taking the total to 373,016 till now, while 2,259 people received the second dose till Sunday.

Meanwhile, 6,714 people were administered the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine, taking the total to 36,566.

On the other hand, 26,690 people received the first dose of the Moderna vaccine in the 24 hours to Wednesday morning.

Health Minister Zahid Maleque on Saturday confirmed that the authorities had reached an agreement with Russia to collect a significant amount of vaccines this month. Besides, the country would get 6 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine early next month, he added.

The Japanese government is likely to provide 2.9 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine under Covax facilities to Bangladesh. The health minister hoped that the vaccines would arrive this month.

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Meanwhile, the foreign minister on Wednesday said that the country would receive 3 million more doses of Moderna vaccine via Covax.

In the meantime, the Finance Ministry has made it known that the government was going to buy 15 million doses of Sinopharm vaccine from China at a lower price as previously agreed by the two governments.

Bangladesh received 2 million doses of Sinopharm vaccine on July 2 as part of an agreement of purchasing 15 million doses of vaccine. A lower price would be applicable for the rest 13 million vaccines and additional 2 million vaccines onward.