Second dose of mass vaccination begins 7 Sept

The second dose of the mass vaccination for Covid-19 will begin on 7 September, Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) director general Abul Bashar Mohammad Khurshid Alam said on Wednesday.

He said there will be no trouble to inoculate people with the second dose of Covid-19 vaccine during the mass vaccination and more doses would arrive before the vaccine drive starts.

Khurshid Alam made the remarks while speaking at a progamme arranged to distribute ventilators gifted by expatriate Bangladeshis, at the Central Medical Store Depot (CMSD) auditorium in Dhaka.

Presided over by the DGHS chief, CMSD director general Abu Hena Morshed Zaman, DGHS director (hospital affairs) Farid Uddin Mian and other senior officials of DGHS were present.

The DGHS has so far distributed 300 out 561 ventilators gifted by expatriate Bangladeshis.

Bangladeshis living in the United States sent 562 portable ICU ventilators for the treatment of Covid-19 patients.

Prime minister’s personal physician ABM Abdullah received the ventilators at the airport.

ABM Abdullah said these ventilators were sent under the supervision of four physicians living in the USA -- nephrologist Ziauddin Ahmed Sadeq, cardiologist professor Masudul Hasan, former senior UN official Mahmud Us Shams Chowdhury and cardiologist Chowdhury Hafiz Ahsan, and another physician Arifur Rahman living in Canada.