The government is taking all preparations in reaching the corona vaccines to vaccination centres across the country ahead of the February 7 countrywide vaccination programme.
The vaccines will be provided at 49 centres in capital Dhaka and 613 centres across the country.
According to sources, the corona vaccines, brought from the Serum Institute of India, started to be sent to different districts of the country from the Beximco Pharma Warehouse at Gazipur from last Thursday evening.
Officials in Chattogram said that as part of the move, 4,56,000 doses of corona vaccines have reached Chattogram on Sunday last. The vaccines reached at the Chittagong Civil Surgeon's Office by a freezer van of Beximco Pharma.
These vaccines brought in 36 cartons have been kept at the EPI store of the Civil Surgeon's Office by maintaining the cold chain.
“The vaccines will be provided to the people of the city and different districts in Chattogram division as per the priority list,” said Dr Sheikh Fazle Rabbi, the Civil Surgeon in Chittagong.
Officials in Noakhali said, “Like Chattogram, in the first phase, 1,04000 dodges of the vaccines reached Noakhali by a freezer van with police escort on Sunday. All the vaccines have been preserved in the EPI Centre located at the office of the district civil surgeon.”
According to officials concerned in Dinajpur, in the first phase, 96,000 dodges of vaccines reached at the Civil Surgeon’s Office in Dinajpur on Sunday morning by a freezer van.
Dinajpur District Civil Surgeon Abdul Quddush said, “Registration has already started through the ‘Surakshya’ app and those who would register first, they will get the corona vaccine first on priority basis.”
He also said that the vaccine will be provided at 14 places including Dinajpur M Abdur Rahim Medical College & Hospital, General Hospital and 12 Upazila Health Complexes as per the scheduled dates.
Like Chattogram, Noakhali and Dinajpur, 2,400 vaccines also reached at Panchagarh, 4,800 at Thakurgaon, 60,000 at Satkhira, 1,200 at Khagrachhari, 12,000 at Rangamati and 10,000 at Bagerhat districts.
Officials concerned also said that vaccines are being sent to all the districts and upazilas gradually as per the requirement and these vaccines are being preserved in the cold chain so that they are not damaged.
Officials at the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) said that people are being registered through the ‘Surakshya’ app and through online for receiving the corona vaccine. Over 25,000 people already have registered themselves so far.
According to the DGHS officials, doctors, nurses and other health service personnel as well as other people, who are over 55 years old would get the vaccine on priority basis.
Earlier a total of 567 people, mainly doctors and other people have already been provided with the corona vaccine in the first phase on last Wednesday and Thursday. Besides, the government has decided to provide vaccines to 1.5 crore people. Of them, vaccines will be provided to 60 lakh people in this current month and the rest 90 lakh in March.
It should be mentioned that over 10 crore people worldwide have so far been infected by the coronavirus and more than 21 lakh have died from the deadly virus.
In Bangladesh, around 5.5 lakh people were infected by COVID-19, and more than 8,000 people died.
In this circumstance, earlier on January 27, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination campaign at Kurmitola General Hospital (KGH) in the capital city of Dhaka.
During the inaugural function, Sheikh Hasina said, “We want protection of all from the coronavirus. I want to say to you all to work with sincerity to make the Covid-19 vaccination programme a success. We want cooperation from all as everything will go well to this end.”
She said the vaccination programme was initiated strictly following World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines and protocols while Bangladesh appeared as one of the forerunner countries to launch the inoculation campaign.
She said that Bangladesh would get 6.80 crore vaccines for 20 percent of its population or 3.40 crore people from the WHO, COVAX facility.
Sheikh Hasina said the vaccine recipient priority list was prepared in line with WHO’s Scientific Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) guidelines taking into consideration the Bangladesh context.
The vaccine will be preserved in 64 district EPI stores and 483 EPI stores across the country.
It is known to all that Bangladesh received its first ever COVID-19 vaccine consignment on January 21 (Thursday) as India sent 20 lakh doses of vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca as a gift.
The first consignment of COVID-19, 50 lakh Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines purchased by the government, landed in Dhaka on January 25.