Dhaka, Jan. 22 -- Bangladesh needs 340 million doses of vaccines - two shots per head -- to vaccinate its population.

Bangladesh will get five million doses of the University of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine a month from the Serum Institute of India, with the first consignment expected next week.

The government is also looking to securing doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine under the COVAX programme led by the World Health Organization and global alliance GAVI.

Bangladesh has written to the COVAX for the unspecified amount of doses, but it does not have the infrastructure to store and transport the Pfizer vaccine that requires storage at a temperature of -70 degrees Celsius .

GAVI is expected to provide the country with around 68 millio...