One crore people to get first dose of vaccine Saturday

The government has arranged a special campaign to vaccinate one crore people countrywide on Saturday with a view to end the yearlong first dose Covid-19 vaccine campaign.

The announcement, however, resulted in a rush of people to the vaccine centres countrywide.

To tackle the rush, the health directorate also continued the first dose campaign on Friday.

Officials said that they wanted to achieve the target to inoculate 70% of the population with their first jab through this campaign.

To this end, the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) has set up 24,500 vaccination centres across the country where 70,000 vaccinators and volunteers will work daylong.

"We want to concentrate on giving second and the booster doses following the special drive [Saturday]," Prof Abul Bashar Mohammad Khurshid Alam, director general of the DGHS said while announcing the campaign on 15 February.

There will be three makeshift vaccine centres in each union and ward in municipality areas, five mobile vaccination teams in each upazila and 20 in each district.

Each of the teams will have a target to inoculate 300 people with their first jabs.

Besides, there will be 30 mobile teams in each city corporation in Dhaka metropolitan while 40 in Narayanganj City Corporation, 60 each in Barishal, Sylhet, Cumilla and Mymensingh city corporations. Each of the teams will have a target to inoculate 500 people.

In this connection, adviser of Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) Dr M Mushtuq Husain told The Business Standard that the government has a clear plan to inoculate the mass population. The recent gathering for the first dose of vaccine is reflecting that the people are also interested in taking the vaccine. 

Meanwhile, the DGHS reported 11 more deaths and 1,406 new Covid cases in the last 24 hours till 8am Friday.

Among the deceased, four were reported in Chattogram, two each in Barishal and Sylhet, and one each in Dhaka, Rajshahi and Khulna divisions. Also, 6,936 Covid patients recovered during the 24-hour period.

The positivity rate dropped to 5.48% during the same period as 25,667 samples were tested across the country. Covid killed 10 people and infected 1,516 more the day before.

The latest figures took the country's death toll to 29,016 and the case tally to 19,41,57.

Bangladesh reported its first Covid case on 8 March 2020 and the maiden death on 18 March of the same year.

Globally, over 431.58 million people have been infected by the novel coronavirus and 5.92 million have died, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

Infections have been reported in more than 210 countries and territories since the first cases were identified in China in December 2019.

4 lakh people to get vaccines in Ctg

More than 4 lakh people will get the first dose of vaccine in Chattogram under the special vaccination campaign. Vaccination activities are scheduled to be conducted in 41 wards of the city and all upazilas of the district today.

Chattogram District Civil Surgeon Md Elias Chowdhury said, "At present, the cities and upazilas have more than one million vaccines in stock. Of which, 5 lakh vaccines are stocked at the Civil Surgeon's Office."

"Under this special vaccination campaign, more than 4 lakh people will receive the first dose of the vaccine. The campaign has targeted 1,80,000 people for the first dose in the city and 1,80,000 in the upazilas," he added.

According to the district civil surgeon's office, there is a target of 4,500 vaccinations through five to six centres in each ward in the city corporation area. In addition, people aged 12-17 years, who do not attend any educational institute, will get vaccines at three centres: Open University, Chattogram Stadium, and Officers' Club. After the completion of the first dose vaccination, the second dose and booster dose vaccination programmes will be strengthened.

The first dose vaccination campaign across the country will conclude today. After that, the second dose and booster dose vaccination programmes will be intensified, according to the DGHS.