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Bangladesh will begin inoculating people against COVID-19 in the first week of February as it hopes to get the vaccine by end of this month, a senior health ministry official said on Monday.

The South Asian country of more than 160 million in November signed a deal with the Serum Institute of India to buy 30 million doses of the vaccine developed by British drugmaker AstraZeneca.

The vaccine will arrive in the country by Jan. 25, Abul Bashar Mohammed Khurshid Alam, head of the Directorate General of Health Services, told a news conference.

Photo courtesy of Daniel Schludi.