<span style="color: black;">Bangladesh received the second consignment of 7.81 lakh doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca (AZ) COVID 19 vaccines from Japan under the COVAX arrangement of the WHO on Saturday. The consignment was received by the Foreign Minister of Bangladesh Dr. A K Abdul Momen from the Japanese Ambassador to Bangladesh Naoki Ilto at the Hazrat Shahjalal Airport in Dhaka. This is the second consignment of AZ COVID 19 vaccine after the first consignment of 2.45 lakh doses received on July 24. Japan will supply around 30.5 lakh doses of the AZ vaccine to Bangladesh. The third consignment of the vaccine is expected to arrive on August 3. </span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: black;">Till now, 58.20 lakh people have received the first dose and 42,96 lakh the second dose of the AZ vaccine. 22.4 lakh people have taken the first dose of the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine and 39,826 the second dose. Moderna vaccine's first dose has been provided to 5.87 lakh people in the country.</span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: black;">Earlier, Bangladesh had received around 10.2 million doses of the AZ vaccine produced by the Serum Institute of India (SII). It included 7 million doses under commercial purchase agreement with SII and remaining doses as gift from India. However, the supply was disrupted due to sudden increase in vaccine demand in India which left about 15 lakh people in Bangladesh waiting for the second dose of the vaccine. </span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: black;">Meanwhile, Bangladesh reported 218 deaths and 9369 new cases of COVID 19 infection on Saturday. The death toll in Bangladesh due to COVID has gone up to 20,685. The sample positivity rate remained high at 30.24 percent. </span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: black;">Bangladesh has been under strict lockdown since July 23 which will continue till August 5. On Saturday, the government announced a relaxation in the lockdown for the export oriented industries including the Ready Made Garment (RMG) factories which will open from Sunday. </span><br />''  <br />