Covid-19: Mass vaccination campaign for administering 10m people begins

The day-long countrywide mass vaccination campaign began on Saturday morning aiming to vaccinate 10 million (1 crore) people with the first dose of Covid-19 jabs, reports news agency BSS.

“We will go door to door at grassroots level to fulfill the target of the mass vaccination campaign to be conducted at 8:00am this morning across the country... we have taken all necessary preparations to make the mass vaccine campaign a success,” director general of Directorate General of Health Service (DGHS) professor Abul Bashar Mohammad Khurshid Alam told the news agency.

The vaccination started from 8:00am and it will continue throughout the day, the health service chief said.

He attributed the controlling of third wave of Covid-19 that hit Bangladesh mid-January this year to expansion of vaccination coverage including booster dose.

“We have laid emphasis on vaccination coverage as it (vaccine) has reduced both fatalities and rising of positivity rate of Covid-19 cases... more than 80 per cent deaths linked to coronavirus are unvaccinated people,” Alam added.

The government has set a target to complete the first dose of coronavirus vaccine today (Saturday), he said adding, “We have adequate quantity of vaccines and urge all eligible people to receive vaccines to protect themselves from the deadly disease.”

“People will be allowed to receive Covid-19 vaccines without registration or any documents from any centre,” Shamsul Haque, member secretary of the National Covid-19 Vaccine Management Taskforce said.

“We will complete administering the first dose of vaccination today,” Shamsul said, adding all respective hospitals and vaccination centres have been directed to immunise coronavirus vaccine without any registration.

“The main objective of today’s mass vaccination campaign is to bring all vulnerable groups of people under vaccination coverage... meaning a significant progress of administering the first dose of Covid-19 inoculation will be ensured ,” he added.

“A total of 30,000 vaccination booths have been set up across the country alongside mobile inoculation centres from city corporations to union levels,” he said, adding 145,000 health workers have been engaged at these vaccination booths and inoculation centres.

Anyone will be able to get Covid-19 vaccine only by giving a mobile number, he said, adding that “The people, who will receive the first dose of coronavirus vaccine, will be given a card... this card is given as a document for receiving the second or booster dose.”

After a good progress on the first dose of Covid-19 vaccination coverage, Shamsul said, “We will focus on second and booster dose to scale up vaccination programme across the country.”

Three vaccination centres have been set up at each union across the country while five mobile vaccination centres will inoculate the people at each upazila and 20 mobile centres will extend their services at each district, the health service official said.

As many as 30 mobile vaccination centres have been at each zone of two city corporations of Dhaka while 40 vaccination centres have been set up at Narayanganj city corporations, Shamsul added.

A total of 60 mobile vaccination centres will immunise at each zone of Barishal, Sylhet, Cumilla and Mymensingh while 25 mobile vaccination centres will extend their inoculation services at Khulna, Rajshahi, Chattogram and Rangpur.

A total of 19,50,81,035 doses of Covid-19 vaccines including booster dose were administered till 25 February 2022 across the country.

“A total of 10,95,81,331 people have been administered the first dose of Covid-19 vaccine till 24 February while 8,19,39,878 received the second dose across the country during the same period,” according to the data of Management Information System of Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).

As many as 35,59,826 people have so far received the booster dose of Covid- 19 vaccine to prevent the spread of the deadly virus, it added.

Some 37,585 floating people across the country have so far received the first dose of vaccine.

As of 25 February, a total of 9,48,94,147 people have been registered to receive Covid-19 vaccines in the country, the DGHS sources said adding, “As many as 8,81,49,240 people have been registered using NID cards, 14,34,259 registered using passports and 53,10,648 registered using birth registration certificates.”