Bangladesh inoculates 2.85m as over four million register for COVID vaccine

More than four million people have registered for the coronavirus vaccine in Bangladesh and the government has given the first doses to over 2.85 million of them in 16 days of the mass immunisation drive.

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 25 Feb 2021, 07:34 PM
Updated : 25 Feb 2021, 07:34 PM

As many as 696 of the vaccinated people have reported side effects, the Directorate General of Health Services said on Thursday.

Armed with seven million shots of the Oxford University-AstraZeneca vaccine from the Serum Institute of India, including two million doses as gift, Bangladesh launched the mass immunisation drive on Feb 7, days after carrying out a dry run inaugurated by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Bangladesh also received two million doses bought from the Indian firm on Monday. Serum will supply total 30 million doses in six months under the deal. 

It has targeted to give the vaccines to total 130 million people, with 3.5 million doses in the first month of the drive.

The drive continues at over 1,000 hospitals and vaccination centres across the country from 8:30am to 2:30pm daily, except for Fridays and national holidays.

Citizens over 40 years old and those on the frontline of the fight against COVID-19 can register online for the vaccine.   

The DGHS said they have the capacity to administer 300,000 doses a day. Volunteers

are helping the health workers in the drive.

At the 47 hospitals and centres in Dhaka city, more than 30,000 people took their first doses of the vaccine on Thursday, with the highest number of 1,680 shots administered at Central Police Hospital, according to the DGHS. 

Division-wise, Dhaka administered 63,244 doses, Mymensingh 7,233, Chattogram 33,867, Rajshahi 18,216, Rangpur 16,701, Khulna 26,186, Barishal 8,051 and Sylhet 7,941.