DHAKA, Jul 21 (NNN-BSS) – The Bangladeshi government decided yesterday, to extend the ongoing special campaign, to administer the second dose and booster shot of the COVID-19 vaccine by another day to today, July 21.
As part of the government’s all-out efforts to rein in the fresh spike of the pandemic, Bangladeshi health authorities earlier held a day-long countrywide mass vaccination campaign on Tuesday, with a view to vaccinate 7.5 million people with the second and booster doses.
More than 285 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have so far been administered in the country, and more than half of the administered vaccines were China’s Sinopharm.
According to a statement from the government’s Management Information System of Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), a total of 285,882,959 vaccine doses, including 159,514,745 Chinese vaccine doses, had been administered across Bangladesh, as of Tuesday.
Bangladesh has been using COVID-19 vaccines developed by AstraZeneca, Sinopharm, Moderna, Pfizer, Sinovac, and Johnson and Johnson.
Shamsul Haque, secretary of the National Covid-19 Vaccine Management Task Force, said, the vaccination efforts will continue as long as there are people eligible for inoculation.
People from all walks of life, especially the less affluent section of society, made up the majority of the second dose vaccine recipients yesterday, and most of them received Sinovac and Sinopharms vaccine, as their second doses.
Health Minister, Zahid Maleque, earlier said, the campaign is aimed at containing the recent spike in infection rates.
People aged 18 and above, who have received their second dose of vaccines, at least four months earlier, were allowed to receive a booster jab during this special campaign. Also, those who took the first dose at least 28 days ago, got their second jab during the campaign.
According to the minister, Bangladesh currently has a stock of around 27.8 million shots of five types of COVID-19 vaccines, including China’s Sinopharm and Sinovac.
Bangladesh began its COVID-19 vaccination drive in Jan last year. It recorded 1,104 new cases and one death yesterday, bringing the total tally to 1,999,395, with 29,250 deaths, the DGHS said.– NNN-BSS
