Staff Reporter :
Second shots of the mass vaccination campaign will be started from September 7, the health authorities said.
“The health authorities will start inoculating the second dose of Covid-19 vaccines under the countrywide walk-in mass vaccination campaign from September 7,” Dr ABM Khurshid Alam, the Director General of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) told journalists on Wednesday.
He said it while attending an event in the capital, adding that the first shots recipients can get their second doses from the same inoculation centres.
“Completion of the second dose will not be hard because multiple vaccine consignments will arrive in the country from China and the USA, including six million more doses from Pfizer soon,” the DG said.
Replying to a query whether recipients would be able to get the second dose without SMS notifications, the DG said that it will be decided in a meeting on Wednesday.
The DG said they have already 3.5 million doses in stock, while another five million Sinopharm vaccines will arrive on August 30. Those will be enough to vaccinate. To hike Covid testing capability, the government is purchasing 30 RT-PCR machines soon, he added. The testing capacity will reach the upazila level.
The DG said it while addressing a function at the Central Medical Stores Depot auditorium where 300 out of 560 portable ICU ventilators, gifted by expatriate Bangladeshis for Covid-19 treatment.
For vaccinating the mass population rapidly, the government started a six-day walk-in vaccination campaign at the union and ward levels from August 7.
According to the data of the DGHS, around 16.6 million citizens are on the second dose waiting list, while 15 million registered people are waiting for their first shot currently.
