Staff Reporter :
The government has planned to administer 2.3 million people vaccines in the first week of May in order to prevent outbreak of diarrhoea.
“In the first phase, people from the five diarrhoea-prone areas in the capital will be inoculated with the oral cholera vaccine against the waterborne bacterial disease,” Health Minister Zahid Maleque said while visiting Government Titumir College in Dhaka on Friday.
Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) admission test was being held in the center. He urged the people to get vaccinated against cholera to prevent the diarrhoea. He said that after the initial stage, wide-ranging inoculation against the disease would begin all over the country.
Replying to a query, Zahid Maleque said, the government is gearing up for yearly inoculation of people against Covid-19.
“It is yet to confirm if people need to be inoculated every year against Covid-19, the government is getting preparation for such actions. Initiatives have been taken to manufacture the vaccine in the home,” the health minister said.
He said that 130 million Covid-19 jabs will be needed for administering 130 million people every year, adding that the World Health Organization (WHO) had not yet taken a call for taking such actions.
The minister claimed the government’s success on vaccination and said that they have made a plan to produce all vaccines in the country soon.
Meanwhile the health minister said that he was unaware of the recent report of Transparency International Bangladesh of discrepancy amounting to Tk23,000 crore on Covid-19 vaccine purchase and management.
“I do not know anything about the matter yet. A press conference will be held soon after looking into it,” he said.
Visiting the BDS test center, the minister said a total of 65,905 students at 28 centres across the country are appearing for the public-private BDS admission test this year. Among these, 545 are in government colleges. An average of 33 students are vying for one seat, he said.
