A six-day special Covid-19 mass inoculation drive, aimed at vaccinating people in both rural and urban areas has run into disarray just days before it was scheduled to start on Saturday next due to shortage of vaccines. The government at a high profile meeting on Wednesday night decided to cut the duration of the campaign to only one day, according to reports published in the media on Thursday. Earlier, it had planned to administer around one crore doses of jabs in 4,553 unions, 328 municipalities and 12 city corporations in six days across the country.
The government, being faced with widespread criticism, has also backtracked on a statement that people aged over 18 won’t be allowed on the streets from August 11 unless they are vaccinated against Covid-19. Liberation War Affairs Minister AKM Mozammel Haque withdrew his comment on Wednesday he made the day before after an inter-ministerial meeting at the Secretariat. The Health Ministry distanced itself from Mozammel’s comment, saying because of his comment people were getting confused. The country has so far vaccinated around 1.40 crore people. Of them, only around 44 lakh people got both the first and second shots. According to the World Health Organization, at least 80 per cent of the population has to be inoculated to contain the spread of the virus.
The mass vaccination drive has hit snags even though the government repeatedly said that it has enough stock of vaccines. Indeed, the drive remained suspended for over two months due to a shortage of doses. Bangladesh suspended administering the first dose of the vaccine on April 26. The government resumed administering the first dose on June 19 on a limited scale. Currently, China’s Sinopharm vaccine doses are being administered in rural areas and district towns and the Moderna vaccine in city corporation areas. Bangladesh has recorded 13,09,910 Covid cases and 21,638 deaths as of Wednesday.
Our government is faltering to take prudent decisions to ensure vaccine jabs for the people when the emphasis in other countries is on making life normal through mass vaccination. The administration should concentrate on mass vaccination and compelling people to wear masks and following health guidelines to curb the novel virus, instead of enforcing a long lockdown.
