The government is going to procure six crore more doses of Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine from China.

The Cabinet Committee on Purchase approved the proposal at a meeting yesterday, with Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal in the chair.

The country may receive the vaccines in November, Additional Secretary of Cabinet Division Shamsul Arefin told reporters after the meeting.

He refused to disclose the price of the vaccine, saying that Bangladesh has signed a "non-disclosure agreement" with the vaccine producer.

It will not be more than the cost of the vaccines that the country had procured earlier, the finance minister said in reply to a query.

The minister said 13.82 crore people will have to be vaccinated, for which 27.64 crore doses are needed. "So far, we bought 2.55 crore doses."

Earlier, the government purchased 1.5 crore doses of Sinopharm vaccines from China. Of which, Bangladesh has already received 70 lakh doses. Also, Bangladesh received 11 lakh doses of Sinopharm vaccine as gift.

Health Minister Zahid Maleque recently told reporters that 54 lakh vaccine jabs will arrive in the country by August 15. Of the doses, 30 lakh will be from Covax, a global arrangement.

A consignment of 17 lakh Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine shots, under the Covax facility, reached Dhaka yesterday evening from China.

Meanwhile, the Directorate General of Health Services yesterday said there was no reason to get worried about the second dose as there were sufficient number of vaccines for the second shots.

"We have enough number of Pfizer, Moderna and Sinopharm vaccines in hand. So, there is no room for concern for the second dose. So, don't pay heed to any rumors," Nazmul Islam, spokesperson for DGHS, said in a regular briefing.