Bangladesh will start inoculating schoolchildren against Covid-19 from November 1, Health Minister Zahid Maleque has announced.
The vaccination drive will be held at 12 centres in Dhaka initially, with the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine, the minister told reporters on Thursday afternoon following a Cabinet meeting at the Secretariat, according to media reports.
The government aims to inoculate as many as 40,000 students daily, he said.
The Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education had earlier sought information of students aged 12-17, including their birth certificate number, from all schools and colleges of Dhaka.
School students whose names have already been sent to the Information Ministry will be able to sign up for vaccination with their birth certificates through the Surokkha website.
After the successful completion of this campaign, it will be expanded to 20 other districts, according to officials concerned.
There are more than 10 million schoolchildren under the 12-17 age group in Bangladesh, officials say.
The health authorities have decided to administer the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine to schoolchildren. For this, the government has a total of three million shots in stock at the moment.
The authorities also conducted a trial run by inoculating over 100 students at a school in Manikganj on October 14.
School and college students in Bangladesh returned to class on September 12 after a prolonged pandemic-induced closure.
The government had shut educational institutions on March 17, 2020, after the country reported its first Covid-19 cases on March 8, later extending the closure several times.
