Noman Mosharef :
Twenty per cent of the population will get Covid-19 vaccines, said Health Minister Zahid Maleque on Sunday.
“Those who are below 18 years of age don’t need this vaccine. They are not being vaccinated anywhere in the world. Besides, pregnant women and the persons with some complications will not be given this vaccine,” he said.
Bangladesh is hopeful of receiving 55 million doses of the coronavirus vaccines from the Serum Institute of India and under a programme led by the World Health Organization within June, 2021, the Minister said.
Health Minister Zahid Maleque disclosed the development to reporters on Sunday after visiting a laboratory set up by the Directorate General of Drug Administration to test medicines and vaccines.
The government has signed a deal with Serum for 30 million shots of the vaccine developed by the UK’s University of Oxford and drugmaker AstraZeneca with 5 million doses per month.
The global vaccine alliance GAVI has pledged to provide Bangladesh with about 68 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccines to cover 20 per cent of the population under the WHO-led COVAX programme.
The Minister said 25 million doses under the COVAX programme are expected to arrive by May or June.
Bangladesh has sent the purchase order to Serum, and the first batches of the Oxford vaccines will arrive at the end of January or early February immediately after AstraZeneca secures the WHO’s approval, he said.
The government will be able to give the shots to 2.5 million people in a month, which means it will take about a year to give 55 million doses, according to Zahid.
He said the government has ensured a cold chain to transport and store the shots.
Zahid Malek said, the Ministry has been working with sincerity for proper management of Covid-19 vaccine in last two months.
The Ministry has been seeking cooperation from the people and officials to complete the vaccination successfully.
Official sources said, twenty five lakh people in the country comprising frontline workers, people with co-morbidities and those aged above 50 years will be administered Covid-19 vaccine in the first phase
A database will be made for those people who will get first phase of Covid-19 vaccine. Prime Minister Office will monitor the entire vaccination process.
The decision was taken at a meeting held in the Prime Minister Office recently.
According to Directorate General of Health Service (DGHS), there is about 1.20 lakh vaccine centres in the country. It is possible to inject vaccines about 50 lakh people by the existing manpower and infrastructure. Bangladeshi vaccine workers are also aware of post vaccine risk, management, cold chain monitoring, make vaccine cards and keeping of record.
