Bangladesh Planning Minister MA Mannan has said that the agreement to import the Covid-19 vaccine from Serum Institute of India (SII) has become virtually ineffective, Dhaka Tribune reported.

"We had an agreement with India to supply the vaccine. In a sense, it is now broken. There is no legal way out of the deal. Our position is very strong in all legal aspects,” the minister told mediapersons after a meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec).

Mannan said he did not expect India to export vaccines by neglecting its own citizens even though it was contractually bound to do so by law.

Referring to India’s grim battle to control Covid-19, he said Bangladesh was learning from the situation in the neighboring country.

The minister said the government had taken alternative measures to procure Covid vaccines and the measures were now in the final stages.

Bangladesh recently approved the Russian Sputnik V vaccine and the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine for emergency use in the country.

Officials believe that the country may get four million doses of the Russian vaccine within May.

Health Minister Zahid Maleque said that Bangladesh will receive 500,000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine from China as a gift by May 10.