Bangladesh is going to resume the vaccination drive against the Covid-19 on June 19 with the Pfizer and Sinopharm jabs.
Health Minister Zahid Maleque on Monday made the announcement, but asked people to follow the health and hygiene rules strictly since everybody will not be inoculated due to shortage of vaccines.
“We are going to start the vaccination again. But we have only 11 lakh doses against the demand of 14 crore. So everyone must follow the health rules," he said at a programme in Dhaka.
He said those who have already been registered will be inoculated with the two new vaccines.
Bangladesh started vaccination with the Oxford/AstraZeneca’s vaccine bought from the Serum Institute of India.
China has given the Sinopharm vaccine as a gift. The government is in talks with Beijing for co-production.
The government also got the Pfizer vaccine under the Covax mechanism.
Wearing masks, maintaining physical distance and washing hands with soap are the keys to prevent the virus from spreading person to person.
The health minister asked all to follow those rules as the infection is rising due to people's reluctance to wear masks.
He reminded all that the hospital beds are limited.
“If even 1 lakh people out of 17 crore got infected every day, there would be no place to treat them,” he said.