China will deliver the second consignment of Covid-19 vaccines as gifts to Bangladesh by June 13, said the Chinese Embassy in Dhaka yesterday.

Deputy Chief of Mission at the Chinese Embassy in Dhaka Hualong Yan, on his Facebook page, wrote, "600,000 vaccines as gifts by the Chinese government is ready for delivery by 13th of June."

Earlier Health Minister Zahid Maleque told The Daily Star that Chinese officials had informed Bangladesh about the arrival of the vaccines in seven to 10 days.

On May 12, Bangladesh received a gift of five lakh Sinopharm vaccine doses from China. The government has already started administering those doses to medical students on a priority basis.

The Chinese vaccine arrives in Bangladesh when it is desperately looking for vaccines from different sources after India halted AstraZeneca vaccine export in March amid a massive rise in Covid-19 infections.

Bangladesh is in the process of signing an agreement with China to buy 1.5 crore Sinopharm vaccines. It is also negotiating with Russia to buy Sputnik V vaccines.

"It's sincerely hoped that our Bangladeshi brothers and sisters will get the most needed vaccines at an earlier date," Hualong wrote in another post on Facebook.

Meanwhile, the government is putting in its best efforts through diplomatic channels to "make things normal" and procure 15 million doses of Sinopharm vaccine from China as planned though the scenario looks "different" to some extent following price disclosure, reported UNB.

On May 27, the Cabinet Committee on Public Purchase approved a proposal for buying 15 million doses of Sinopharm's Covid-19 vaccine.

After the meeting, a Cabinet Division official told journalists that they would purchase the vaccine at USD 10 per dose.

"The scenario looks different to some extent after the incident. We are doing our best to make things normal," a senior government official said.

Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen had a meeting with the Chinese ambassador to Bangladesh, Li Jiming, and discussed the issue, among other things, explaining the whole scenario.

"Our ambassador in Beijing is trying desperately with the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He remains engaged," another official told UNB, mentioning that the price disclosure has given a lot of "inconvenience" to the Chinese company.

Revealing the contract price of the vaccine doses is against the "confidentiality and non-disclosure agreement" and the price for Bangladesh by Sinopharm is among the lowest in all countries, a diplomatic source said adding that the price also depends on who is procuring when.

Bangladesh has also written to relevant parties in China mentioning that it was an "unintentional" mistake to reveal the price of vaccine per dose.