Vaccination drives begin in slums today

The government is set to vaccinate people living in slumps from tomorrow, Health Minister Zahid Maleque has said.

The drive will begin from Korail slum—the largest inhabitants of people belonging to high-risk groups in Dhaka, he told reporters at an event in Dhaka on Monday.

“Well vaccinate 3 lakh people residing in Dhaka’s slums in phases,” he said.

Vaccination coverage among the people living in Dhaka and other cities is comparatively low due to many factors, including the complex registration process, public health campaigners claimed.

“Realising the reality the government has initiated the vaccination targeting the people living in slums,” said the minister. “Though Covid-19 casualties and infections declined sharply but the risk is not over yet,” said Maleque calling upon the people to follow the health guidelines as they followed in the past.

The country registered four new deaths from Covid-19 in a day, taking the total toll to 27,926 on Monday.

The coronavirus caseload increased to 1,572,735 as 234 people tested positive for the disease in the 24 hours to 8 am, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).

Dhaka had the most cases among the eight divisions, logging 182 infections.

Nationwide, another 229 people recovered from the illness, bringing the total number of recoveries to 1,536,744.

As many as 17,700 samples were tested across the country, for a positivity rate of 1.32 percent. The latest figures put the recovery rate at 97.71 percent and the mortality rate at 1.78 percent.

Globally, over 253.39 million people have been infected by the novel coronavirus and 5.10 million have died, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

Infections have been reported in more than 210 countries and territories since the first cases were identified in China in December 2019.