Bangladesh COVID vaccine registration number nears 35 million

The number of people who have signed up for coronavirus vaccination in Bangladesh has neared 35 million with the government gradually expanding the inoculation drive against COVID-19.

Staff Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 21 August 2021, 08:58 PM
Updated : 21 August 2021, 08:58 PM

Around 16.4 million of these citizens have received only the first dose of the vaccine while nearly 6.4 million others got both doses until Saturday, the Directorate General of Health Services said. 

The ICT Division, which is overseeing the registration on Surokkha web platform, said on Aug 7 that 22.5 million had registered for vaccination.

The government suspended the registration in May due to a lack of vaccine doses. The process resumed in July after more doses arrived.

With the vaccines continuing to come, the government had conducted a weeklong expanded mass vaccination campaign.

Bangladesh received the last consignment of nearly 800,000 doses from Japan under the global sharing platform COVAX on Saturday.

Registration is mandatory to receive a coronavirus vaccine shot. When the vaccination drive kicked off on Jan 26, only people aged 40 and above were allowed to register.

On Jul 5, the DGHS lowered the age limit to a minimum 35 years. Later, it was brought down to 30 years and then to 25 years.

Those who are on the priority list for the COVID-19 vaccine can get the shot irrespective of their age.

On Friday, students aged above 18 were added to the priority list.