Over 4.3m fully vaccinated against COVID in three days of mass inoculation

The Bangladesh government has administered more than 4.3 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines in three days to people who got the first doses during a mass inoculation drive.

On the third day of the second phase of the drive on Thursday, nearly 673,000 people received the second doses, according to the Directorate General of Health Services.

The government administered around 2.8 million second doses on Tuesday and over 853,000 on Wednesday.

The second phase of the drive ended in the city corporations on Thursday, but will continue in the rest of the country until Sept 12.

In the six days of the first phase in August, over 5 million people received the first doses of coronavirus vaccines.

Dr Shamsul Haque, director of the DGHS’s vaccination programme, said those who missed the second dose can still visit the centres for the jabs.  

Brig Gen Jobaidur Rahman, chief health officer of Dhaka North City Corporation, said some doses remained unused because many people could not visit the centres. “Maybe they are out of Dhaka, or sick.”

More than 40.5 million people have registered for the coronavirus vaccines.

Over 20.4 million of them have received the first doses. They include 13.25 million who have received the second doses as well.