Covid-19 vaccination campaign ends

The nationwide three-day Covid-19 vaccination campaign ended on Thursday with 80,70,999 people receiving second and booster doses.

"We have set a target of administering 75 lakh people with second and booster doses in the three-day campaign... we have crossed our target as 80,70,999 people received second and booster doses," Dr Shamsul Haque, member secretary of the National Covid-19 Vaccine Management Task force, told BSS on Friday.

"Initially, the vaccination campaign was a daylong programme....the authorities have extended the daylong COVID-19 vaccination campaign to three-day drive aiming to fulfil the target of administering 75 lakh people to build a buffer against the deadly virus," the health service official added.

"As many as 81,74,967 people received COVID-19 jabs in the three-day vaccination campaign. Of them, 1,03,972 people were administered with first dose, 3,81,234 inoculated with second dose while 76,89,765 people received booster dose," the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) sources said.

The government is focusing on expansion of booster dose coverage as the people particularly in rural areas are reluctant to receive booster dose, he said, adding it is not a good sign for us when Bangladesh recorded a significant number of coronavirus cases almost every day over the past one month.

On the first day of the campaign, nearly 60 lakh were inoculated with second and booster dose of coronavirus vaccines, 13 lakh on second day while around eight lakh were inoculated on the concluding day of the drive, Haque added.

The three-day nationwide Covid-19 vaccination campaign began on July 19 and it ended on July 21, he said such campaign will be conducted in future to motivate people for receiving vaccine, particularly booster dose, he added.

The campaign has been successful as people received second and booster dose from all designated centres set up across the country without any hassle, Haque added.

"We have considered the countrywide vaccination campaign as a successful one because we have been able to inoculate over 80 lakh people," Haque said.

Haque said in case of administering the first and second dose of the coronavirus vaccine, Bangladesh has made significant progress, which has acted as a shield to fight against Covid-19 pandemic.