Prime minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday said the government has planned to gradually bring students of 12 years of age and above under the Covid-19 vaccination coverage.
She said this while replying to a tabled question from Jatiya Party lawmaker Rustam Ali Farazi during PM’s question-answer session in Jatiya Sangsad (parliament).
The prime minister said the government has a plan to vaccinate 80 per cent of the country’s population.
The government is taking measures as per the guidelines of the World Health Organisation (WHO) to bring 50 per cent of people under vaccination coverage by December 2021, she told the House.
To make that happen, Sheikh Hasina said, the government will provide vaccines for the students aged 12 or above.
She mentioned that the physically-challenged people will be brought under the vaccination coverage through vans provided by the respective ministry to bring them under the social safety-net coverage.
The prime minister said workers will also get vaccine shots on priority basis as measurers have been taken to collect 24,65,13,660 vaccine doses.
Under these measures, she said, some 4,44,31,880 vaccine jabs have been collected through bilateral agreements. Steps have been taken so that 10 million (1 crore) or more doses of vaccines could be collected every month, she added.
Sheikh Hasina said some 60 million (six crore) vaccine jabs -- 20 million (two crore) every month -- will come from Sinopharma from October to December.
The prime minister hoped that it would be possible to overcome the pandemic with cooperation from all the governments.
“The situation will become normal again if everybody follows health guidelines strictly apart from getting vaccinated,” she said.