Manikganj school children to get Pfizer jabs today on test run

School children, between 12-17 years of age, will be vaccinated with Pfizer’s Covid-19 jabs at the Colonel Malek Medical College Hospital in Manikganj on Thursday, said Prof Abul Bashar Mohammad Khurshid Alam, director general of Directorate General of Health Services.

“We will inoculate a group of students from two schools in Manikganj with Pfizer vaccine and will observe their health condition for 10-14 days,” the DG said in an online announcement on Wednesday.

After observing this test run, the vaccination campaign for school students will be launched in Dhaka on a broader scale, added the DGHS DG.

He also explained that Manikganj was selected for this run due to some technical reasons.

On September 15, Prime Ministrer Sheikh Hasina had announced to vaccinate the school students. Following the instruction, the health department started preparation for vaccinating them.

Referring to the sufferings of the out-bound migrants at the airport, he said, “Some people are wrongly blamed the health ministry and the DGHS but the health department cannot be blamed for any such mismanagement at the port.”

“We have just set up the testing facilities at the airport and now it is up to the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh to properly handle the rush of the passengers for ensuring hassle-free services for them,” he added.

He also noted that the CAAB is yet to establish any relaxing facilities for the doctors on duty at the airport.

Earlier on Sunday, Health minister Zahed Maleque told the media that the government has decided to administrate Moderna and Pfyzer shots for the school children, between 12-17 years of age, soon after getting the approval from World Health Organization.

Bangladesh detected its first Covid-19 case on March 8 and first death on March 18.

Amid rising Covid infections along with fatalities, Bangladesh began mass inoculation drives on February 7.

As of Tuesday, nearly 6 crore people have registered for the vaccine shots in Bangladesh. Among them, 1.84 crore have received both shots while 3.72 crore have taken the first dose so far.