Vaccination drive in slums kicks off
The government started the vaccination campaign in slums of Dhaka to curb the Covid-19 infection on Tuesday by vaccinating the residents of Korail slum in the capital.
Dr Shamsul Haque, director of the health department's vaccination programme, confirmed the matter to the media on Tuesday morning.
He informed that there are about three lakh people in Korail. Many of them have been vaccinated the rest will be vaccinated through the ongoing campaign. However, only the people above the age of 18 will receive the jabs.
"We have officially started vaccinating the slum dwellers in Korail of the capital from Tuesday. Vaccination campaigns were scheduled to last for two days, but now we are thinking of covering the entire slum population,” he said.
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He added that the plan is jab all the slums. The activities will continue for a few days and will look to gradually bring every slum across the country under vaccination.
“Earlier we conducted vaccination programs in different places but the slum areas particularly lagged behind. Hence they are currently the focus of the current activity,” said the doctor.
According to the concerned officials registrations will be done on the spot. The eligible people will be registered on the booths set up for the jabs via their NID or birth certificate.
DNCC officials including Chief Executive Officer Md Selim Reza and Chief Health Officer Brig Gen Md Zobaidur Rahman looked over the proceedings of the campaign.
At an event on Monday, State Minister for Health and Family Welfare Zahid Malik announced the vaccination program in the slums of Dhaka.
He said that vaccination campaigns conducted successfully is a major reason behind the significant drop in the virus’s deadly impact.
The minister said, “We have already vaccinated more than 50 million people with the first dose and more than 30 million people with the second dose. An average of 1.5 million people is getting vaccinated every day in the country.”
He added that there are plans to vaccinate 30 million people in November and the target is to vaccinate about 80pc of the people in the country by January.
The minister further said that the Covid-19 situation in the country has been under control for the last month. However, the target is to bring the country's infection and death numbers to zero.
