Pfizer vaccine to be administered from Monday

Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine inoculation will begin in Dhaka tomorrow, Monday, aiming to fight the Cornavirus pandemic.

Line director of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) and a member of the Vaccine Distribution Committee, professor Shamsul Haq, disclosed it at a regular health bulletin on Sunday, reports UNB.

“We have already received 100,620 doses of vaccine from the COVAX facility. We have preserved it. Necessary guidelines and training were given. We hope we will start inoculation with it Monday,” he said.

At initial stages, the vaccination will start in three hospitals in Dhaka. They are - Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU), Sheikh Russel Gastro Liver Institute and Kurmitola General Hospital.

Those who got registered earlier for vaccination will be given priority, he added.

On 27 May, the government approved the emergency use of Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine in the country. Earlier on 19 June, Bangladesh started administering Sinopharm vaccine doses across the country.

The vaccination started in the capital and elsewhere of the country with 1.1 million doses of Sinopharm vaccine gifted by China, said the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).

The vaccine doses are being administered at four hospitals in Dhaka district -- Dhaka Medical College and Hospital, Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College and Hospital, Sir Salimullah Medical College and Hospital, and Mughda Medical College and Hospital.

Health workers and police personnel, students of government and private medical and dental colleges, students of government institutes of nursing and midwifery, residents of dormitories of public universities, officers and employees working in important national projects, expatriate workers, cleaners, those who are engaged in burial and those who were excluded from vaccination earlier and citizens of other countries who are working here will be vaccinated on a priority basis.