Bangladesh to roll out COVID vaccines for children this week

The government will roll out a coronavirus vaccination programme for children aged between 12 to 17 years this week.

Children will receive Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine shots to combat the pathogen, said Dr ABM Khurshid Alam, Director General of Health Services.

As the transportation and storage of the Pfizer vaccine needs special arrangements, only 21 vaccination centres across the country will administer the doses to children, the DGHS director said on Tuesday.

"For now, those vaccination centres in districts and city corporations that have the proper facilities will start administering them. The vaccine will be available in other places later." 

The schedule will be announced the day before rolling out the programme, he said.

“We'll collect the list (of students’ names) from the schools to give the vaccine shots and save that information on our site. We’ll do the registration later. Children will have different vaccination centres,” he said.

On Sunday, the health minister said that he had met with representatives from the WHO director general’s office and the vaccine alliance Gavi during his recent visit to Switzerland.

Their representatives had given their assent to the vaccination of children against COVID-19, he said.

“They told us – ‘you can give the vaccines as a way to stop the spread’. Gavi also assured us they would send Pfizer and Moderna doses.”

The government currently has 6 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine, half of which will be administered to children between the ages of 12 and 17. Children can register for the vaccine through their birth registration or birth certificate.

“The remaining vaccines will be kept in reserve for the second dose for the children,” the minister had said. “They will be able to register through their birth certificate or through their educational institution.”