The Minister came up with the remarks while distributing food packages among people  affected by the pandemic, including the disease and the lockdown measures, in Garpara of Manikganj Sadar upazila.

"Vaccine is being prepared in many places across the world, we're in touch with them, and hopefully we will be able to sign an agreement shortly, in the next two to four days," he said.

However, not everyone would get the vaccine at the same time. Some people (the elderly or vulnerable) would get it in the first phase and gradually as more supplies are secured, others would also get vaccinated, Maleque explained.

"But vaccine alone can’t prevent an epidemic; people must follow health guidelines and maintain social distance even after being vaccinated," he insisted.

Covid-19 in Bangladesh:

Bangladesh on Saturday registered 1,320 new coronavirus cases in 24 hours, pushing the caseload to 407,684.

Besides, 18 more patients died from Covid-19 during the period, taking the fatalities to 5,923.

So far, 324,I45 patients have recovered from the disease-- 1,442 in the last 24 hours.

The fatality rate in Bangladesh is 1.45 percent, the Directorate General of Health Services said.

Bangladesh reported its first cases on March 8. The number of cases reached the 300,000-mark on August 26. The first death was reported on March 18 and the death toll exceeded 5,000 on Sept 22.

The global confirmed cases of Covid-19 exceeded 45 million on Saturday, according to the latest tally from Johns Hopkins University (JHU).

The data shows the Covid-19 cases reached 45,477,552 (over 4.5 crore) while 1,187,023 (11 lakh 87 thousand 23) more fatalities were recorded till this morning.

Coronavirus cases were first reported in China in December last year. The World Health Organisation declared it a pandemic in March.

Also read: Working to bring Covid-19 vaccine to Bangladesh: Health Minister