COVID booster shots likely after majority receive vaccines: health minister

The government is likely to roll out booster shots of the coronavirus vaccine after the majority of people receive their doses, said Health Minister Zahid Maleque.

“We’ll definitely think about rolling out booster shots if needed,” he said when asked about providing booster shots to the migrant workers going to Saudi Arabia.

“There’ll be a time when we’ll be able to vaccinate almost everyone in Bangladesh, not just migrant workers.”

The government will take measures in consultation with the Technical Committee on Vaccination and the National Advisory Committee on Epidemic Prevention, he said.

“We’ll try to prioritise the vulnerable groups for the boosters, following the recommendation from the committees.”

Other countries in Europe or the US have started to provide booster shots and Bangladesh will think about it, Maleque said at an event at the national guesthouse Padma where Saudi Arabia handed over 1.5 million doses of coronavirus vaccine to Bangladesh.

“We bought 210 million vaccine doses and have already received 110 million, At least 85 million doses have been administered already,” he said sharing the progress of the inoculation drive.

“We administer 1.5 million vaccine doses a day and our capacity has increased too. We provided as many as 8 million shots in a single day.”

“People from almost all vulnerable groups have received the coronavirus vaccine,” he said.