Reza Mahmud :
About 1.50 crore doses of Covid-19 vaccine can be stored in the country, but the public health experts say that it is not adequate.
Sources from the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) said, they have three stores where about 1.50 crore of Covid vaccines can be kept.
Officials of the DGHS said, Pfizer vaccine only creates a challenge for storing as it needs ultra-cold storage.
They said, Pfizer needs minus 90 degree to minus 60 degree Celsius temperature for storing it.
But the country has less capability for storing the said jab.
Member-Secretary of the Vaccine Deployment Committee of DGHS Dr Shamsul Haque said, Bangladesh can store two lakh shots of Pfizer-bioNTech vaccine right now.
He said that the DGHS can store about 10 lakh doses of the Pfizer vaccines by of its ultra-low freezers which are now being used for other purposes.
Meanwhile the other vaccines used in the country are Oxford-AstraZeneca, Moderna and Sinopharm demand in normal freezers in 2 to 8 degree Celsius temperature.
Public health experts said, the country have to vaccinate minimum 12.50 crore of its population for achieving herd immunity.
In this account, the existing vaccine storing capacity is not adequate.
“Bangladesh needs minimum 25 crore doses of jabs with 2 doses for each patient. In this view, the existing storing capacity is not adequate,” Professor Dr. M. Muzaherul Huq, former Advisor of the World Health Organisation told The New Nation on Saturday.
He said, the availability of vaccine is important, but more important is the period, how quickly we can vaccinate our population to achieve our herd immunity.
“Any delay might be disastrous for our people, which again will affect our economy bringing more suffering for the nation,” the Professor said .
He said, “For all these strategic planning should be drawn and properly, timely implementation is urgent.”
When contacted, Professor Dr. Be-Nazir Ahmed, former Director of disease control of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare told The New Nation on Saturday, “The important matter is to make an proper plan to deploy vaccines at number of centers across the country to inoculate those swiftly.”
“If the vaccination can be administered quickly, the shortcome of storing capacity would not be so harmful in the process,” he said.
When contacted, Dr. Robed Amin, Spokesperson of DGHS told The New Nation on Saturday, “We can store about 1.50 crore of vaccine at a time. The amount would not be a matter for storing, because we are not bringing 10 crores of jabs at a time.”
He said the vaccines we have to use quickly after receiving, so the shortness of storing capacity may not be a problem.
