Preparations underway for vaccinations nationwide on 7 February

The Department of Health is working in full swing to start a nationwide Covid-19 vaccination campaign on 7 February.

The vaccine has already reached several districts and is on the way to the remaining ones. The quality of the registration app to get the vaccine is also being improved.

"Vaccinations, country-wide, will start on 7 February. Till Friday, the vaccine has reached 36 districts. So far, about 11,000 people have registered to take the vaccine and the registration is expected to increase further from Sunday. If anyone fails to register, the individual can come to the centre and get vaccinated," said Prof ABM Khurshid Alam of Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) on Saturday.

Bangladesh now has 70 lakh doses of Covid-19 vaccine which will be sent to the Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) centres in different districts.

Prof ABM Khurshid Alam said there are 613 immunisation centres across the country, of which 49 are in Dhaka. Around 6,990 vaccination teams will work across the country.

After the prime minister inaugurated the first-run of vaccinations on 27 January, 26 people were vaccinated at Kurmitola General Hospital. The next day, the pilot vaccination programme was completed by vaccinating 541 people in five Dhaka hospitals.

The health minister will inaugurate the national vaccination programme at a hospital in the capital. Besides frontline workers, the employees of the health department will be vaccinated on that day, said Khurshid Alam.

He added that a second shipment of the vaccine will arrive in February. However, the exact time has yet to be confirmed.

4,56,000 vaccines to reach Chattogram on Sunday

Around 4,56,000 vaccines will reach Chattogram on Sunday and will be kept in the EPI store of the Civil Surgeon's Office maintaining the required cold chain.

Chattogram Civil Surgeon Dr Sheikh Fazle Rabbi said the vaccine will be given among the priority candidates of the city and district. The vaccination programme may start on 5 February.

"The vaccination programme will be conducted in the same manner as the EPI programme. Therefore, the training of vaccinators started from 30 January in the metropolis. The training activities at the upazila level will start from 1 February," said the civil surgeon.

A total of 42 teams will be engaged in the vaccination effort. Each team will consist of six members as vaccinators – two midwives, staff nurses or senior staff nurses and four volunteers.

According to the Civil Surgeon's Office, vaccination activities will be conducted in the Chattogram metropolitan area under the supervision of the City Corporation and at the upazila level under the supervision of Upazila Nirbahi Officers (UNO).

Four committees have already been formed to conduct vaccination activities. If there is any problem in providing vaccines, the departmental committee will take care of it, headed by the Chattogram Divisional Commissioner. 

Additionally, the committee of city corporation headed by the Chattogram City Corporation (CCC) administrator, district level committee headed by deputy commissioners and committee formed at upazila level under the leadership of UNO will work too.

Immunisation programme at 15 centres in the city

CCC sources have said the CCC Vaccination Committee initially prepared 15 vaccination centres.

The vaccine will be administered in 14 upazila health complexes at the upazila level where there will be two vaccination teams, said Chattogram's civil surgeon.