The government on Tuesday started administering the 2nd doses of Covid-19 vaccine under its mass vaccination campaign, aiming to fight the deadly virus.
Vaccination centres in Dhaka and elsewhere in the country drew huge crowds as vaccine seekers were seen standing close to each other with little or no regard to social distancing rules.
The vaccination campaign will continue for three days in all cities from September 7-9 while one day outside the cities on September 7.
The decision came from a videoconference held on Monday with PM’s Principal Secretary Dr Ahmad Kaikaus in the chair.
In the city areas, those who received the first doses on August 7 and 8 will be given the second doses on September 7, while those who got the first doses on August 9 and 10 will receive the second doses on September 8 and the people who received the first doses on August 11 and 12 will be given the second doses on September 9, according to a decision taken in the meeting.
Outside the cities, those who received the first doses on August 7 were given the second doses on September 7 (today).
People will have to take the second doses in the same centre where they got the first doses.
Bangladesh on August 7 kicked off another phase of its mass vaccination drive aimed at inoculating 35 lakh people in six days.
Covid situation in Bangladesh
Bangladesh logged 56 Covid-19 deaths and 2,639 cases in 24 hours till Tuesday morning, showing a decline in single-day fatalities and cases compared to the ones a day before.
The country reported 65 Covid-related deaths and 2,710 cases on Monday.
The daily case positivity rate also fell slightly to 9.69% from Monday’s 9.88%, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
The fresh numbers pushed the country’s total fatalities to 26,684 while the cases reached 15,19,805, the DGHS said.
The new cases were detected after testing 27,466 samples during the 24-hour period.
Besides, the recovery rate rose to 96.11%, while the case fatality remained unchanged at 1.76 per cent compared to the corresponding period.
Among the new deaths, 20 died in Dhaka division, 15 in Chattogram, six in Khulna, five in Sylhet, four in Barishal, three in Rajshahi, two in Rangpur, and one in Mymensingh divisions.
Of them, 19 were men and 37 women.
The country last saw 54 Coronavirus-related deaths on June 18 and the upswing in the fatalities reached its peak on August 5 and 10 when 264 deaths were recorded.
However, the situation was much more catastrophic than June in the latter part of August as the country experienced a surge of Covid-related caseloads and deaths during that time.
Between May and June this year, there was a 273% rise in monthly caseloads and 162% in fatalities. In July, there was a 150% increase in caseloads and a 170% rise in deaths compared to the previous month, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Source: United News of Bangladesh