Corona vaccines have already been distributed to almost all the districts and health centres across the country, said officials of the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) and Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
According to officials concerned, the vaccination programme for mass people is scheduled to be started from February 7. The vaccines will be provided at 49 centres in the capital Dhaka and 613 centres in all the divisions, districts and upazilas across the country.
Professor ABM Khurshid Alam, Director General of the DGHS, on Thursday said that the Corona vaccines would be provided to 35 lakh people of the country in this current month although the government earlier had decided to provide the vaccines to 60 lakh people.
The DG of the DGHS said, ‘Centring the vaccination programme and distribution of the vaccine, a meeting chaired by the Principal Secretary of the Prime Minister’s Office was held on Wednesday at the PMO. The meeting has changed the decision taken earlier.”
Professor Khurshid Alam also said that the second dose of the vaccine can be injected four to twelve weeks after the first dose of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine. It has been decided that 35 lakh people will be injected the second dose soon after the first dose is injected.
It should be mentioned that 70 lakh doses of Oxford-Astrageneca vaccine produced by the Seram Institute of India have already reached Bangladesh and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina earlier on January 27 inaugurated the vaccination programme.
People of the country need to use the app to register online to get vaccinated. Those interested in getting the corona vaccine must register on the web portal 'Suraksha' (www.surokkha.gov.bd). Registration can also be done by downloading the ‘Suraksha’ mobile app from Android or Apple Play Store.
Meanwhile, Proff Dr. Shamsul Huq, a Director of the EPI, said that vaccines have already been distributed to all the districts and centres across the country.
Official concerned said that so far around one lakh people have registered through online using apps. But most of the people are not used to registering online.
In this regard, EPI Director Professor Shamsul Huq said, “Those who are not able to register using online applications, officials and employees of the government will help them in this regard.”
Officials concerned also said that vaccines are being sent to all the districts and upazilas gradually as per the requirement and these vaccines are being preserved in the cold chain so that they are not damaged.
According to the DGHS officials, doctors, nurses and other health service personnel as well as other people, who are over 55 years of age would get the vaccine on priority basis.
Earlier, a total of 567 people, mainly doctors and other category people have already been provided with the corona vaccine in the first phase on January 27 and 28 last.
It should be mentioned that over10 crore people worldwide have so far been infected by the coronavirus and more than 21 lakh have died from the deadly virus.
In Bangladesh, around 5.5 lakh people were infected by the COVID-19, and more than 8,000 people died.
In this circumstance, earlier on January 27, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination campaign at Kurmitola General Hospital (KGH) in the capital city of Dhaka.
During the inaugural function, Sheikh Hasina said, “We want protection of all from the coronavirus. I want to say to you all to work with sincerity to make the Covid-19 vaccination programme a success. We want cooperation from all as everything will go well to this end.”
She said the vaccination programme was initiated strictly following World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines and protocols while Bangladesh appeared as one of the forerunner countries to launch the inoculation campaign.
She said Bangladesh would get 6.80 crore vaccines for 20 percent of its population or 3.40 crore people from the WHO, COVAX facility.
Sheikh Hasina said the vaccine recipient priority list was prepared in line with WHO’s Scientific Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) guidelines taking into consideration the Bangladesh context.
The first consignment of COVID-19, 50 lakh Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines purchased by the government, landed in Dhaka on January 25.
