Home ›› 08 Aug 2021 ›› Front
The first day of the government’s special vaccination campaign was marked by chaos as most people at the vaccination centres showed no regard for social distancing measures or health guidelines.
Since Saturday morning, long queues were seen in front of different vaccination centeres in the capital where no visible steps were taken to ensure social distancing or health guidelines.
Dhaka Medical College Hospital’s vaccination centre found itself in a chaotic situation after many people refused to maintain order or queue while entering the centre to receive their jabs.
Many vaccine seekers also alleged that some people used “recommendations” to break their queue to enter the centre.
Arifa Khanam, 58, and her husband Mofizur Rahman had to wait for more than three hours to get their serial for vaccination even after arriving at the centre from Rampura.
“We arrived here early in the morning. There were many who came after us but received vaccines before us,” she told The Business Post.
Mohammad Nuruzzaman, another vaccine recipient at the centre, said, “It seems that people here have no awareness of social distancing or health guidelines. I have seen many of them not wearing masks properly. No one is following hygiene rules here.”
Bangladesh recorded 261 new deaths and 8,136 new cases in a 24-hour period until Saturday morning.
The country’s death toll stands at 22,411 while the total number of positive cases is 1,343,396, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
The government earlier set a target to vaccinate 32 lakh people, aged above 25, through the mass inoculation programme at 14,000 vaccination centres at 4,600 unions, 1,054 wards of municipalities and 433 wards of 12 city corporations.
August 8 and 9 have been kept reserved for inoculating people at ward-level, the health department officials said.
Members of Rohingya refugee community, aged 55 years and above, will receive their jabs from August 10 to 12.
Health officials said a total of 32,706 vaccinators and 48,459 volunteers have been prepared so far for the vaccination campaign.
The campaign would prioritise vaccinating the elderly, women and people with disabilities and those from hard to reach areas, health officials said.
Bangladesh to bring 7.5cr doses from China
After inaugurating the Bangamata Sheikh Fojilatunnesa Mujib Field Hospital at Dhaka’s Paribagh area, Health Minister Zahid Maleque said Bangladesh would soon bring 7.5 crore vaccine doses from China.
He told the media that Bangladesh signed a deal with China to procure 1.5 crore doses, and another deal would be signed for six crore doses soon.
Informing that China has already started sending the doses, he also said four crore vaccine doses would reach the country by October and November.
The minister also said that hospitals are now treating both dengue and Covid-19 patients at the same time.
“This is the time to reduce the infection rate as there is no option to increase the number of hospital beds in the country. Physicians and health workers are now working tirelessly to treat the infected,” he said.
Field hospitals to admit only referred patients
DGHS Director General (DG) Professor ABM Khurshid Alam said that the government is aware that almost all Covid-dedicated hospitals in Dhaka were packed with patients. To handle the situation, a Covid field hospital has been set up at Bangamata Sheikh Fojilatunnesa Mujib Convention Hall of BSMMU.
Only referred patients would be admitted to the field hospital, he added.
Khurshid also said that the field hospital would only be used to treat critical patients and urged the normal patients not to come there unnecessarily.
DGHS on Thursday said that so far 10289,797 people were given the first doses of vaccines while 44,43,517 of them were given their second dose.
Bangladesh has been administrating four vaccines- AstraZeneca, Sino pharm, Moderna and Pfizer- under its national vaccination campaign. The government plans to vaccinate 80 per cent of its 170 million population by March 22.
