Preparations are going on to vaccinate 1 crore people of the country against Covid-19 within the next week, said Health Minister Zahid Maleque on Sunday.
The minister said this while attending the inauguration ceremony of the 1st year MBBS class at BCPS auditorium in the capital.
The health minister said the return of factory workers to their workplaces without maintaining the health protocols in one day’s notice might worsen the Covid situation.
As Covid infections keep rising in the country, he urged all to abide by health guidelines unfailingly.
A mass vaccination will start at the union level on August 7 and elderly people who do not have NID cards will be able to get vaccinated, said Maleque.
“We’re planning to bring pregnant women under the vaccination progamme, ” he added.
Old people are getting infected by young ones and 80% of the Covid-infected older people are dying, the minister mentioned.
Bangladesh launched a nationwide Covid-19 vaccination drive with Oxford University-AstraZeneca vaccine on February 7.
The first dose of the Covid vaccination was suspended on April 26 amid uncertainty over the availability of the vaccine doses from Serum Institute of India as per contract following a rapid surge in the virus cases and deaths in the neighbouring country.
After about two months’ break, Bangladesh resumed the mass vaccination on July 8 with Chinese Sinopharm vaccine.
Source: United News of Bangladesh