Vaccination of Qawmi madrasa students, floating people in Dhaka kicks off

The Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) started a special vaccination programme for Qawmi Madrasa students and floating people in the capital city of Dhaka on Sunday.

Students of Jamia Siddiquia Noorani Women's Madrasa in Mirpur were the first to get inoculated under the special campaign on the first day.

"Today, 580 female and 126 male students got vaccines. Qawmi Madrasa students across the country will be vaccinated in phases," Dhaka Civil Surgeon Abu Hussain Md Moinul Ahsan told The Business Standard on Sunday.

The health department said madrasa students between 12 and 17 years of age would be given the Pfizer vaccine.

The DGHS started vaccinating floating people at Kamlapur railway station at 7:30pm on Sunday with a target of inoculating 1,000 floating people, Dr Shamsul Haque, member secretary of the Covid-19 Vaccine Deployment Committee of the DGHS, told TBS.

He also said the special vaccination drive will be continued at railway stations and other areas across the country.

According to the two Dhaka City Corporations and non-governmental organisations, there are 2-2.5 lakh floating people in the city. This number is not a static one as people come for work and leave the city after their jobs, said Dr Shamsul Haque.

Currently the government has 3.36 lakh doses of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine in stock.

Covid-19 vaccination in the country started one year ago on 7 February. So far, 82.48% of people targeted by the government have received the first dose, 53.03% their second dose, and 2.82% have gotten booster doses.

The government aims to vaccinate 11.92 crore people (70% of the total population) by March.

DGHS spokesperson, Professor Dr Nazmul Islam, said at the Covid-19 briefng on Sunday afternoon that the Department of Health has launched several special campaigns to speed up vaccination.

In these campaigns, besides at designated vaccination centres, vaccines are given in several phases in the wards, unions, municipalities and city corporations. At present, vaccination is on at community clinics too.