Bangladesh to continue giving first dose of COVID vaccine with second shot

The government has decided to continue administering the first dose of coronavirus vaccine to the citizens along with the second jab.

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 5 April 2021, 08:16 PM
Updated : 5 April 2021, 08:16 PM

The mass inoculation drive will continue during the lockdown and Ramadan, the COVID-19 Vaccine Preparedness and Deployment Core Committee decided in a meeting on Sunday.

Meerjady Sabrina Flora, an additional director general of health services who heads the committee, informed the city corporations in Dhaka and the municipalities about the decisions in a letter.

The transportation of the vaccine doses will begin on Tuesday with the help of Beximco Pharmaceuticals, the sole distributor of the Oxford University-AstraZenea vaccine in Bangladesh.

The citizens who have registered for the doses online will need to carry their vaccine card amid the lockdown. They can travel by rickshaw or private cards as public transports are banned during the lockdown.

The government has enough doses of the coronavirus vaccine to begin administering the second shot on Apr 8 as planned earlier, Cabinet Secretary Khandker Anwarul Islam said on Monday.

Bangladesh is using the Oxford University-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine, produced by the Serum Institute of India, in the mass inoculation programme that began on Feb 7.

The secretary’s remarks cleared confusions surrounding the second dose amid uncertainties over getting the purchased shots from India.

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