Staff Reporter :
Government plans to vaccinate 25 lakh people every month with a target to vaccinate 80 per cent of the people in the country in phases, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal said this in his budget speech in the Parliament on Thursday.
The government has already announced that it would ensure free vaccination for all citizens of the country.
“The government will provide as much fund as required to bear the
expenses of procuring the required doses of vaccines. We will make adequate allocation for this purpose in the budget,” the minister said in his budget speech.
The finance minister said, “We are going to receive USD 1.5 billion as vaccine support to implement the Covid-19 inoculation programme of the government.”
The government will procure three crore doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine from the Serum Institute of India.
In addition, 6.80 crore doses of Covid-19 vaccine will be available from the COVAX facility under the World Health Organization for 20 per cent of our population, that is, for 3.40 crore people, he said.
The government is trying to collect more vaccines from abroad. Besides, it is trying to produce vaccine locally, he added.
The government is also going to spend money on motivational and sensitisation programme for illiterate people to overcome the growing apathy among people to health protocols.
The finance minister said the objective of this programme will be to sensitise them about healthcare information, maintaining health protocol and hygiene, quality of life and the importance of proper education.
It is also meant for inspiring the illiterate people so that they become interested and feel encouraged in fully sensitising their children on these matters.
“To this end, steps will be taken to capacitate the Bureau of Non-Formal Education so that it can implement this programme,” the minister said.
