Sylhet Bureau :
Additional Director General (Planning Development) of the Department of Health, Prof. Dr Mirzadi Sebrina Flora said that Sylhet is lagging behind in corona vaccination. He also asked the health officials to come up with new plans to increase the number of vaccinators according to the situation in their respective areas.
On February 3, a two day-long departmental ‘review meeting’ was held in Sylhet on the Covid-19 vaccination. According to meeting sources, about 51 percent of the total population of the department has been vaccinated in the last one year. Health officials say the Department has lagged behind in vaccination as Sylhet is an expatriate-dominated area.
At the review meeting, Mirzadi Sebrina, chairperson of the Health Department’s coroner immunization committee and additional director general of the department, told departmental health officials that Sylhet was lagging behind in vaccination. At that time, Mirzadi Sebrina called on the health officials to adopt new plans according to the situation in their respective areas and achieve the national target of vaccination.
According to the Sylhet Health Department, the first dose of corona vaccine was given in Sylhet and other parts of the country from February 8 last year. According to the statistics department, the population of Sylhet division is 1 cr 16 lakh 96 thousand 625 people. Of these, 59 lakh 45 thousand 399 doses of corona have been vaccinated by the department till February 8, which is about 51 percent of the total population.
However, the target for immunization for those over 12 years of age was set at 61 lakh 97 thousand 625 people. As a target, 72 percent of people have received the first dose of corona vaccine. It is expected that it will take another four and a half months to meet the first dose vaccination target if vaccination activities continue at the current rate.
The second dose of vaccine has been started in Sylhet from April 6 last year. The second dose of Corona has been given to 36 lakh 3 thousand 250 people in about 10 months till 7th of this month. Which is 45 percent of the second dose target. If the second dose of vaccine continues at an ongoing rate, it will take another year to achieve the second dose target.
The target for immunization for children over 12 years of age was set at 61 lakh 97 thousand 625 people. As a target, 72 percent of people have received the first dose of corona vaccine. If this continues, it is expected that it will take another four and a half months to meet the first dose vaccination target.
1 lakh 10 thousand 629 people have taken booster dose in the department till 6th February. Of these, 45,444 were given in Sylhet district, 18,242 in Sunamganj, 20,026 in Habiganj and 29,015 in Moulvibazar district.
The Department of Health says that while the number of first-dose vaccines received on paper is 82 percent, the actual number is much higher. The reason for this, they say, is that many people in the region live in exile. According to the Sylhet Manpower Department, from 2005 to 2020, there are 8 lakh 96 thousand 81 registered expatriates in the department. Apart from this, there are about 6 lakh more expatriates.
Himanshu Lal Roy, Director of the Sylhet Health Department, said the Sylhet division was lagging behind in receiving vaccines due to expatriates. There is no specific account of the total number of expatriates in the department. In addition, the rate of vaccination has further decreased due to vaccination drive for the students from 12-17 years age. However, the department will be in a better position to receive the vaccine within the next one month.
Himanshu Lal Roy said that information is being collected from house to house. He hoped that the department would be able to say exactly how many people are out of the country and how many could not be vaccinated within the next one month.
