Low turnout marks nationwide special vaccination drive

The nationwide special vaccination drive on Tuesday to inoculate 75 lakh people with the second and booster dose witnessed a low turnout.

For example, only 457 people were vaccinated in Dhaka's Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery on Tuesday under the campaign. The institute inoculated more than 2,500 people per day on average in previous drives.      

Dr Md Ashraful Haque, Covid vaccine centre focal person at the Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery, attributed the low turnout to the flat infection curb and a lack of mass awareness.   

"Only people who had online registration received the shots at our centre today [Tuesday]," he told The Business Standard.

Like the institute, the vaccination centre at the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University Hospital jabbed 958 people on Tuesday – which is too low compared to the centre's previous 2,000 per day vaccination record.  

The health directorate said the day-long campaign might be extended for centres that failed to reach targets on Tuesday.

Dr Shamsul Haque, member secretary of the Covid-19 Vaccine Deployment Committee of the health directorate, on Monday evening told TBS that centres that would miss the targets might extend the campaign on their own.   

On Tuesday morning while visiting the campaign at Dhaka Medical College Hospital, health directorate Director General Prof Dr Abul Bashar Mohammad Khurshid Alam said, "If the target to inoculate 75 lakh people is not attained today [Tuesday], the campaign will be extended to Wednesday and Thursday."

"People, due to the low number of Covid-19 cases and deaths lately, have lost interest in the booster dose. So far, 17% of the population has received the booster shots,'' he added.

This campaign aims to inoculate more people with the second and third dose to combat any future Covid wave. Besides, children aged 5-12 will be vaccinated from August, said the health directorate chief.

According to official data, some 16,181 vaccination booths with around 33,246 vaccination workers and 49,869 volunteers have been assigned to facilitate the nationwide campaign.

Earlier in June, there was a week-long booster dose vaccination campaign.

Around 12.94 crore people have been inoculated with the first dose till Monday while some 11.97 crore received the second shot. According to the health directorate, 3.54 crore people received the booster dose till 18 July.