Dhaka, Sept. 15 -- The shipment arrived in Dhaka by a Turkish Airlines cargo flight on Wednesday, the foreign ministry said in a statement.

A representative of the Directorate General of Health Services received the vaccines at the airport.

Bangladesh launched its inoculation drive against COVID-19 in February by rolling out the vaccine Covishield, developed by the University of Oxford and Anglo-Swedish company AstraZeneca and manufactured by the Serum Institute of India.

But India stopped exporting vaccines after sending 10.2 million doses, including 3.2 million as gift, as it faced a shortage amid a devastating wave of infections.

The government suspended administering the first dose of the vaccine by the end of April to preserve it...