Shawdesh Desk:

After a vaccination drive at Korail slum in Dhaka, health authorities have started giving Covid jabs to the slum dwellers of Chattogram city on Sunday.

Some 2,000 residents of Jhautala slum in Khulshi area will get the jabs under the programme which started around 2 pm, according to the Civil Surgeon’s office.

The dwellers of all other slums in the city will be brought under the vaccination programme in phases, it said.

Apart from the slum dwellers, the third gender people will also be brought under the vaccination programme, and it will start on Monday.

The dwellers of Jhautala slum will be allowed to get vaccinated without registration and the campaign will continue till Thursday.

According to the Civil Surgeon office, the vaccination drive will continue till 5 pm, and a three-member medical team is there to provide vaccine doses to the slum dwellers.

Dr Ilias Hossain, the District Civil Surgeon, said the Jhautala slum residents will be able to get their Covid shots on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday.

Already some 300 doses of Astrazeneca vaccine have been allocated for the transgender people  and the number of doses will be increased depending the number of vaccine seekers.

The vaccination drive for the residents of Korail slum in Dhaka started on November 16.

According to the slum census conducted by the Bangladesh Statistics Bureau (BSS), in 2014, some 1.28 lakh people are living in 2,216 slums in Chattogram city corporation area.