Octogenarian couple get vaccine jabs as Bangladesh expands inoculation efforts

An octogenarian couple received their COVID vaccine jabs as Bangladesh entered the third day of nationwide immunisation.

Abdul Matin, who crossed 89, and Raushan Ara, 81, from Rampura arrived at Dhaka Medical College Hospital on Tuesday morning and later departed with a sigh of relief.

“Getting vaccinated is good. Everyone should take the shots," Matin told bdnews24.com.

The couple were accompanied by their daughter Faria Bushra Matin at the vaccination centre.

"They haven’t been infected with the coronavirus. That’s a relief. They are mentally agile for their age. Both of them are doing fine after receiving the shots,” Faria said.

The DMCH vaccination centre was found to be more crowded on Tuesday than the previous two days. 

“On the first day, 270 people were vaccinated here. As many as 500 people received their jabs yesterday,” said Dr Tasmina Parveen.

Alauddin Al Azad, deputy director of DMCH, said all those who have been vaccinated so far are doing ‘well.’

In the last two days, 77,669 people across the country have been vaccinated against the coronavirus, according to the health directorate.

Of those who were vaccinated on the second day, 92 had displayed some mild side-effects. On the first day, 21 people had shown such symptoms.

However, no serious incidents have been reported so far.

Bangladesh is using the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine which has been manufactured by the Serum Institute of India. Each person will be given two doses of the vaccine.

The government has purchased 30 million doses of the vaccine from the Serum Institute of India. It has already received a total of seven million doses of the vaccine, including two million free doses from the Indian government.

According to the national COVID vaccine distribution and preparation plan, the government will inoculate 80 percent of the country's population, or 138.24 million people.