Bangladesh to begin Covid vaccination February first week

Covid-19 vaccination in Bangladesh will begin in the first week of February.

Director General of the Health Services Prof Abul Bashar Mohammad Khurshid Alam came up with the announcement at a press conference at the DGHS office in the capital on Monday.

Khurshid Alam said, “The vaccine may reach the country by January 21-25… we’ll start the vaccination one week after its arrival in the country. That means the vacation will begin across the country in the first week of February.”

He also said the registration for vaccination will start on January 26.

“Beximco Pharma has informed us that the vaccine (from India) will arrive in Bangladesh between January 21 and 25, and then it’ll be kept there in Beximco’s warehouse for two days,” Dr Khurshid said.

Later, he said, the vaccine doses will be sent to different districts of the country as per the DGHS list.

“We’ll start the vaccination one week after its arrival in the country if everything goes well. That means the vacation will begin across the country in the first week of February,” the DG said.

He said they are taking all-out preparations at the filed level to initiate the vaccination programme.

On November 5, Bangladesh signed a deal with the Serum Institute of India through Beximco to buy three crore doses of coronavirus vaccine developed by Oxford University and British drug-maker AstraZeneca.

As per the deal, the country is supposed to get 3 crore doses of vaccine in six months as 50 lakh doses will come every month.

Every person will receive two doses of the vaccine and the second doses will be given eight weeks after receiving the first one.

The DGHS DG said 7,344 teams have been formed for carrying out the vaccination activities across the country.

Dr Khurshid, however, said pregnant women and those under 18 years will not be vaccinated.