Staff Reporter :
Health authorities have decided to resume the mass vaccination program for Covid-19 across Bangladesh from Thursday.
Directorate General of Health Service (DGHS) Director Dr Shamsul Haque disclosed the development during a virtual bulletin on Wednesday.
He said that from Wednesday onwards people can again start registering for the vaccines on the Surokkha website.
Moreover, Health Minister Zahid Maleque has told Parliament that 80pc of the country’s people will get Covid-19 jabs by next March.
“We’ll be able to vaccinate 80pc people within the first quarter of the next year,” he said on Wednesday, explaining how Bangladesh would collect the Covid-19 vaccines from several sources by this time.
The minister was speaking on a cut motion about his ministry in the House as the opposition Jatiya Party, BNP and Ganoforum lawmakers harshly criticised the Health Ministry for its failure to ensure vaccines for mass people.
He said, some 25 lakh Covid-19 vaccines of Moderna will arrive within July 2 to July 3.
Vaccines purchased from China will also start coming by that time. Bangladesh has inked an agreement with Chinese Sinopharm to get 1.50 crore vaccine, said Zahid. Bangladesh will get 63 million vaccines within December under the Covax facilities… the country will have a total stock of 100 million vaccine doses by December through which it will be able to inoculate five crore people, he said.
Besides, Bangladesh will get 70 million doses from Johnson & Johnson in the first quarter of the next year and it will be able to inoculate seven crore people with this, he added.
BNP MPs Harunur Rashid, Rumeen Farhana and Mosharrof Hossain, Jatiya Party MPs Mujibul Haque, Pir Fazlur Rahman, Rustum Ali Faraji, Shameem Haider Patwary, among others, joined the discussion on cut motion during the passage of the national budget for 2021-22 fiscal.
They also came down heavily on the minister drawing his attention to the widespread corruption, irregularities and mismanagement in the health sector.
The health minister, however, rejected these allegations and said.
“You’ll have to say specifically where corruption took place. The wide allegation of corruption in the health sector is not acceptable,” he said.
He said that none could go abroad to receive the medical treatment amid the Covid-19 restrictions and they are taking services in Bangladeshi hospitals. “You are taking services since the hospital can render the services. You remain well,” he said.
The minister claimed that no corruption took place in procurement of masks. “The masks that MPs talked about were never purchased. No payment was made,” he said.
The vaccine will be administered at 40 vaccination centres in Dhaka simultaneously. Medical students, nursing students, IST Mats and public university students, police, and other will receive the vaccine.
Meanwhile, Pfizer vaccine will also be administered at seven centres in Dhaka city. Only outbound migrant workers will receive the Pfizer jabs as per the list from Manpower Export Promotion Bureau.
The vaccination centres for the migrant workers include Dhaka Medical College Hospital, Salimullah Medical College Hospital, Mugda Medical College Hospital, Shaheed Shuhrawardy Medical College Hospital, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, Kurmitola General Hospital, and Sheikh Russel National Gastroliver Institute and Hospital.
Responding to a query, he said the vaccination campaign will continue amid the hard lockdown starting from Thursday. “Vaccine recipients will be out of lockdown purview.”
But those travelling to get their shots must carry their vaccine cards to show them to the law enforcers when asked, Dr Haque added.
He said that none would get the vaccine without registration and confirmation via SMS.
Meanwhile, the expatriate workers from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, who cannot enter their respective workplace countries without Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, will receive the doses as per the list from the Bureau of Manpower, Employment, and Training (BMET).
Also, students will be able to register for their vaccine shots as per the list issued by the University Grants Commission (UGC).
On the other hand, the first consignment of two million doses of vaccine purchased by the Bangladesh government from China’s Sinopharm is ready for delivery in Beijing.
Deputy Chief of Mission at Chinese Embassy in Dhaka Hualong Yan on Wednesday said, it will reach Dhaka soon, reports UNB.
“China stands by our Bangladeshi friends in fighting the new wave of the pandemic,” he said.
Bangladesh is likely to get 1.5 crore of Sinopharm vaccine doses from China, while China is ready to supply more, if needed.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh will soon get 2.5 million doses of Moderna Covid-19 vaccine under the COVAX facility.
Bangladesh is likely to get two consignments of Moderna vaccine doses before July 4, officials said.
Earlier, Health Minister Zahid Maleque and US Ambassador to Bangladesh confirmed it.
US Ambassador to Bangladesh Earl Miller tweeted saying Bangladesh would soon receive a gift of 2.5 million doses of Moderna Covid-19 vaccine from the American people via GAVI.
“As the largest contributor to COVAX, the U.S. is committed to increasing the country’s vaccine supply to beat the pandemic here and worldwide.” Ambassador Miller said.
The government is imposing a seven-day hard lockdown across the country from 6am Thursday in view of rising of Covid-19 infection.
On Wednesday, the Cabinet Division issued a gazette notification imposing certain rules and regulations for the lockdown.
