With a fresh stock of vaccine doses on hand, Bangladesh is set to gear up the ongoing Covid-19 vaccination drive to take it to the next level as it aims to inoculate 80% of its population with each person getting two doses administered.
Addressing a press briefing at BCPS auditorium on Friday, Director General of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) Dr ABM Khurshid Alam said they are ready to accelerate the drive across the country on Saturday.
He said those above 25 years of age will be vaccinated, giving priority to senior people and women and physically-challenged ones.
Initially, he said, 35 lakh people will be vaccinated and those living in inaccessible remote areas will also be brought under the drive.
With 32,706 vaccinators and 48,459 volunteers ready, the government has planned to administer jabs simultaneously in 4,600 unions, 1,054 municipality areas, and in 433 wards of the city corporations, said Khurshid Alam.
Campaign timeline and areas:
On August 7, the vaccination campaign will kick off in all union, municipality and city corporation areas.
During August 8-9, vaccine jabs will be administered in the excluded wards of unions and municipal areas where already the campaign was underway.
During August 10-12, Covid jabs will be administered among Rohingya citizens over 55 years old.
Since the inauguration of mass inoculation in Bangladesh on February 7, this year, some 4,416,131 people have fully been vaccinated with two shots while 10,009,953 people have received the first doses, says the DG of the DGHS.
Disruption
Earlier in April, the government had suspended administering the first dose of the coronavirus vaccine after the Indian government postponed the shipment of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.
On December 13, 2020, Bangladesh signed a deal with Serum Institute of India to purchase 3 crore doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine and the country was supposed to receive 50 lakh doses a month as per the deal.
Jab stock
Referring to the Health Ministry, Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen on Thursday said Bangladesh has a stock of 1.23 crore vaccine doses and some of the doses (AstraZeneca) will be kept for the second dose.
He said Bangladesh will receive another consignment of 34 lakh doses of Sinopharm vaccine next week while 60 lakh doses of Pfizer vaccine in the first week of September next.
