Bangladesh administers second COVID vaccine dose to over 81,000

As many as 81,323 people have been inoculated after Bangladesh began administering the second dose of the coronavirus vaccine amid a record surge in COVID-19 cases in the country.

Meanwhile, another 14,804 people received their first vaccine shot on the opening day of the second phase of the vaccination drive on Thursday.

More than 6.99 million people have registered for the vaccine and over 5.58 million of them have received the first dose until Thursday, according to the health directorate.

Bangladesh is deploying the Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine, developed by the Serum Institute of India. The vaccine is being administered in two doses in the space of eight weeks.

The start of the second phase of the vaccination campaign, however, coincided with the highest daily spike in COVID-19 deaths. The government reported 74 new fatalities from the disease in the 24 hours to 8am Thursday to take the death toll to 9,521.

The caseload jumped to 666,132 after another 6,458 people tested positive for COVID-19 in the same period.

Many people flocked to the various vaccination centres to get their second dose on Thursday amid a stark uptick in infections across the country over the past few days.

They had previously been vaccinated on Feb 8, the first day of the mass vaccination campaign. So far, 5.56 million people have received the first jab of the vaccine.