BSS :
President M Abdul Hamid and his wife Rashida Khanam received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine at Bangabhaban in Dhaka on Wednesday afternoon.
“The President and his wife Rashida Khanam took the first shot of Coronavirus vaccine at 5:00 pm at Bangabhaban,” president’s Press Secretary M Joynal Abedin said, reports BSS.
Secretaries concerned to the president and his personal physicians, among others, were present during the vaccination.
Earlier, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina received the first shot of the COVID-19 vaccine on March 4. The premier inaugurated the COVID-19 vaccination rollout in the country virtually at Kurmitola General Hospital in the capital on January 27.
The first shot of the Oxford-Astrazeneca developed vaccine produced by the Serum Institute of India (SII) was administered to Runu Veronica Costa, a nurse of Kurmitola General Hospital, during the inauguration of the vaccination campaign.
Then four more people, including two doctors, a traffic police officer and an Army Brigadier received the vaccine at the hospital. Later, 20-25 frontline health workers also received the vaccine.
Meanwhile, a countrywide vaccination campaign started on February 7 and over 40,13, 963 people have so far received the first dose of Coronavirus vaccine, according to a health ministry source.
Bangladesh has so far received 9.0 million vaccine doses as a part of a tripartite memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed on November 5 last year and a subsequent agreement signed on December 13 last year among the Bangladesh government, Beximco Pharmaceuticals Ltd and the SII.
Bangladesh received its first-ever COVID-19 vaccine consignment on January 21 as India sent 2.0 million doses of the vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca as a gift. Later, Bangladesh has received 7.0 million vaccine doses as part of the tripartite deal.
The agreement ensures the availability of 30 million COVID-19 vaccine doses by June this year from the Serum Institute of India.
