Bangladesh to vaccinate 80 lakh people marking PM’s birthday

ZOOMBANGLA DESK: Health and Family Welfare Minister Zahid Maleque today said Bangladesh has set a target of inoculating 80 lakh people on September 28 across the country on the occasion of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s birthday.

“The mass vaccination campaign is set to begin from 9am and it will continue till the target is fullfilled,” he told a virtual media briefing organized by Directorate General of Health Service (DGHS), an official release said.

DGHS Director General Prof Dr Abul Bashar Mohammad Khurshid Alam and Additional Director General ( Planning) Prof Dr Meerjady Sabrina Flora, among others, joined the briefing.

The health minister said people aged 25 and above will be vaccinated on the day

(September 28) and those who have already completed the registration process will get priority in receiving the vaccines.

The government has prepared 80 thousand health workers including 48,059 volunteers to make the countrywide vaccination campaign a success.

Bangladesh has been lauded globally to control COVID-19 pandemic as the country has intensified its multiple efforts including vaccination and improving healthcare system to stop the spread of the deadly virus.

As of September 25, a total of 2,41,97,598 people received the first shot and 1,60,33,971 exhausted the course getting the second dose of the inoculate.

The number of people who got them registered so far is 4,41,15,145, the DGHS sources said.

It also added that the government has decided to purchase 16.5 crore more COVID-19 vaccines from China and WHO initiative to expedite the countrywide vaccination campaign.

Bangladesh set a target to vaccinate the country’s target 80 percent population by 2022 under an accelerated inoculation campaign, expecting receipt of required COVID-19 jabs within estimated timeline.

Bangladesh has so far approved eight COVID-19 vaccines to control the deadly disease.

The approved COVID-19 vaccines are from Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, CoronaVac, Pfizer, Covishield, Sputnik V, AstraZeneca and Sinopharm. (BSS)