The government has decided to administer 80 lakh doses of Covid vaccine across the country tomorrow, on the occasion of the 75th birthday of prime minister Sheikh Hasina.
‘We have decided to administer 80 lakh doses of Covid vaccine on September 28 which happens to be the birthday of prime minister Sheikh Hasina,’ health minister Zahid Maleque said in a virtual press briefing on Tuesday.
In this campaign, only the first dose will be administered to people who have completed their registration under the Surokkha app with a priority to registrants aged 40 years and above, women and physically challenged people, he said.
Registrants aged 50 years and above, women and physically challenged people will be administered vaccine in the first two hours starting at 9:00am, said Zahid.
The minister suggested that registrants should go to vaccination centres with their vaccine card or National Identity card for receiving vaccine.
Pregnant and lactating women will remain out of the campaign on the day.
Some 32,406 health workers will administer vaccine in about 16,200 centres in union parishads, municipalities and city corporations across the country with help of over 48,000 volunteers, Zahid said.
The health minister requested community leaders, including representatives of the local government bodies, and the local administrations to extend support to make the campaign a success.
About 2 crore registrants are yet to receive the text message for receiving vaccine and a good number of the registrants have been waiting for several weeks.
Only 2.42 crore people, from among 4.4 crore registrants with the Surokkha app, have got the first dose of Covid vaccine till September 25.
The health minister said that the government was maintaining a stock of about 1.5 crore doses of vaccine on Sunday after administering about 4.02 crore doses from 5.5 crore doses received so far from various sources.
Around 1.6 crore people, or 9.5 per cent of the population, have been fully vaccinated so far.
The vaccination rate is among the lowest in the region, according to the Directorate General of Health Services and the One World Data.
Around 14 per cent of the population have received the first dose since the launching of Covid vaccination on February 7.
In the region, about 6.3 per cent people of Myanmar have been vaccinated while 10 per cent people have got the first dose.
Around 1.1 per cent people of Afghanistan have been vaccinated while 1.9 per cent people have got the first dose.
Himalayan kingdom Bhutan is among the countries with a top vaccination rate by vaccinating 63 per cent of its people and administering the first dose to 74 per cent.
Around 61 per cent people of Maldives have been vaccinated and 72 per cent people have got the first dose.
India has vaccinated 16 per cent of its population and administered the first dose to 45 per cent people.
Nepal has vaccinated 20 per cent people and administered the first dose to 22 per cent people.
Around 11 per cent people of Pakistan have been vaccinated and 25 per cent people have got the first dose.
The Bangladesh government has a plan to inoculate about 80 per cent of the 16 crore-plus population of the country as people aged 25 years and above and students and expatriate workers aged 18 years and above are eligible to get vaccine.
There is also a plan to bring in children aged 12 to 17 years under the Covid vaccination coverage.
Bangladesh is now administering Covid vaccines developed by four companies — AstraZeneca, Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Sinopharm — and all recipients require taking two doses of a vaccine to be fully vaccinated.
The government has set up a mechanism to bring in about 26 crore doses of Covid vaccine, including 10 crore doses through WHO-Covax, 6 crore doses from China and 3 crore doses from India, so far, the health minister said.
The regular extended programme on immunisation will also continue on Tuesday, he added.
Sheikh Hasina was born on 28 September, 1947 in Tungipara in Gopalganj, according to the Prime Minister’s Office web site.
