Bangladesh to roll out second dose of COVID vaccine on Thursday

Bangladesh is set to begin administering the second dose of coronavirus vaccine on Thursday while the first shot will continue to be given to citizens who have registered.

The citizens who took the first dose began getting text messages on Monday confirming the date for the second dose at the same vaccination centre.

Those who were injected the first dose in the beginning of the inoculation programme on Feb 7 and Feb 8 will get their second doses on Thursday, said Md Shamsul Haque, a line director at the Directorate General of Health Services.

Many of those who received the first dose in the dry run on Jan 26 and Jan 27 will be fully vaccinated now, he said on Wednesday.

The citizens who have not received the SMS confirmation can go to the centres with the vaccine card for their second doses.

Shamsul also said they did not receive any instruction on discontinuing the first dose. “It will continue until we get instructions,” he said.

More than 6.97 million people have registered for the vaccine and over 5.56 million of them have received the first dose until Wednesday.

Bangladesh is using the Oxford University-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine in the mass inoculation drive.

The authorities initially planned to give the second dose after four weeks but later extended the period to eight weeks following recommendations by experts.