Government preparing 14,000 centres to vaccinate people

Bangladesh is preparing 14,000 centres across the country to vaccinate 1 crore people during a special week-long drive as the number of coronavirus cases continues to soar.

“The vaccination drive will start on August 7. No unvaccinated person above the age of 18 will be allowed in public places from August 11 as the government has decided to relax the ongoing restrictions,” Liberation War Affairs Minister AKM Mozammel Haque said after attending a meeting at the Secretariat in Dhaka.

He said that aged persons and working class people, among others, will be given priority during the vaccination drive.

Meanwhile, Health and Family Welfare Minister Zahid Maleque said the government currently has a stock of 1.15 crore vaccine doses and another 1 crore doses from different sources would reach the country within this month.

He said the government also plans to keep mildly-infected Covid-19 patients in hotels instead of hospitals as the hospitals have no more empty beds.

The minister also said that to meet the present demand, around 600 new ICU new beds will be introduced soon in the capital.

Amid the situation, Bangladesh on Tuesday counted 235 deaths and 15,776 Covid new positive cases, taking the total number of death to 21,397 and infection to 12,96,093.

The country’s present positivity rate was found at 28.54 per cent after testing 55,284 samples in 697 laboratories across the country.

Talking to reporters, Liberation War Affairs Minister AKM Mozammel Haque said that to ensure vaccines for more people, Bangladesh will emphasize on vaccine production solely or jointly, if needed.

Earlier, Bangladesh inked agreements to get 20 crore vaccine doses.

Amid the situation, Bangladesh on Tuesday received 616,720 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine from Japan under the Covax facility.

Health Department Spokesperson Shamsul Haque said that a Cathay Pacific flight carrying the vaccine consignment from Japan reached Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport around 3:15pm on Tuesday.

Including the latest, Japan sent 16.43 lakh dose of vaccine so far. The country promised to provide a total of 30 lakh doses to Bangladesh.

Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) adviser Mohammad Mushtuq Husain said that Bangladesh has the record to vaccinate two crore people in a day under EPI, but the supply of vaccines remain a challenge.

Health Department spokesperson Robed Amin said they have almost completed training health workers to facilitate the massive vaccination drive.

Bangladesh started mass vaccination campaign on February 7 with a minimum age for registration of 55.

Subsequently, the minimum age had been reduced to 40, 35, 30 and now 25.

The government plans to reduce the vaccination age limit to 18 in phases.

DGHS at a press release on Tuesday said so far 43,91,784 people have received 2nd doses out of 96, 97, 417 people who received 1st dose, among 166, 89,035 people who had registered for the vaccination. Bangladesh has been continuing its vaccination programme with four vaccine varieties — AstraZeneca, Sinopharm, Pfizer and Moderna.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh Medical and Research Council (BMRC) gave ethical permission to conduct human trial of Covaxin, a Covid-19 vaccine made by India’s Bharat Biotech, represented by International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b).

The council’s Chairman Syed Modasser Ali said icddr,b sought permission for clinical trial few months ago and the ethical permission was given as all requirements were fulfilled.

Bangladesh government has a plan to bring 80 per cent of the country’s population under vaccine coverage by the first quarter of next year, which would need 27 crore vaccine doses for inoculating some 13.6 crore people.