Vaccination drive for Qawmi madrasah students for Covid-19 began as the students of Mirpur Jamia Siddikia Nurani Mohila Madrasah, a women’s madrasah in Mirpur of the city, took the jabs on Sunday.
The health directorate said the students will be administered with Pfizer vaccine.
Health directorate (DGHS) additional director general Meerjady Sabrina Flora, directorate’s member secretary on Covid-19 vaccine committee, Shamsul Haque and civil surgeon of Dhaka were present as the drive began in the morning.
The issue of inoculating the Qawmi madrasah students came to the fore when the government began vaccination drive for the students of 12-17 years of age two months ago.
According to a government statistics, currently there are 19,199 Qawmi madrasahs in Bangladesh. The number of students in those madrasahs is over 1.4 million (14 lakh).
Speaking to Prothom Alo on Saturday, Shamsul Haque said vaccination drive for the floating people will begin this evening (Saturday) at Kamalapur Railway Station. They will be administered with Johnson & Johnson company’s vaccine, he added.
He further said it would be tough to ensure second dose of the vaccine for the floating people as they do not have any permanent address, NID card, and birth registration certificates. That’s why they will be given the J&J vaccine. One dose of the vaccine is enough to fight the novel virus.