Shawdesh Desk:

The government is holding a special vaccination campaign across the country, including in Dhaka today, aiming to inoculate 75 people with the booster and second shots of the coronavirus vaccine.

“The government has taken the decision to arrange a nationwide COVID-19 vaccination campaign on July 19. The target of inoculating 75 lakh people with the booster and second shots has been fixed in the daylong campaign,” said Health and Family Welfare Minister Zahid Maleque said.

He made the announcement after virtually attending a press conference held at the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) in Mohakhali of the capital on Monday. The DGHS high officials, including its director general Prof Dr ABM Khurshid Alam, were present at the press conference.

According to the health ministry, the vaccination campaign will be run in government medical college hospitals, specialised hospitals, district general hospitals, and upazila health complexes across the country.

At the same time, the vaccination with booster and second shots will also be conducted in ward areas of city corporations, municipalities, and upazilas of the country.

The government has arranged 16,181 vaccination centres, including 623 permanent and 15,558 temporary vaccination centres all over the country, while 33,246 vaccinators and 49,869 volunteers will also work to operate the vaccination programme.

During the vaccination campaign, people aged 18 and above who have received their second corona vaccine dose at least four months ago can receive the booster dose at their nearby centres, while people aged 18 and above who haven’t taken their second shot yet can receive the second shot.

The government has already given the first dose to 76.05 percent, the second dose to 70.3 percent, and the booster dose to 17.9 percent of the total population of the country. “Now we have around three crores of vaccines in stock to administer,” the health minister said.

He said children aged 5–11 years will be brought under the vaccination programme as the government has got assurance of getting more than 3 crore vaccines from Covax.

Zahid Maleque said online registration through the ‘Surokkha app’ will have to be completed with a digital birth registration certificate for the vaccination of children aged 5–11 years in the country.

He said it has become urgent to reduce stock of the coronavirus vaccine through immediate inoculation as Covax will not provide the vaccine further if the existing vaccines are not administered.

The minister stated that the government requires eight crore vaccines to complete inoculation with booster shots, and that the government has already received 10 crore shots of vaccines from Covax (Pfizer, Moderna, and AstraZeneca).

According to the DGHS, on the day of the vaccination campaign, the vaccine recipients have been asked to bring their vaccination cards to receive the jab. The vaccination will take place from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

The elderly, women, pregnant women, and people with disabilities will get priority in the vaccination centres to receive the vaccine. In every vaccination centre, a team comprised of two vaccinators and three volunteers can vaccinate 500 recipients.

The Pfizer vaccine will be administered as a third or booster dose across the country in the campaign.

However, routine immunisation activities will also continue in the vaccination centres across the country.

The DGHS ran a weeklong special vaccination campaign for a booster dose or third dose of coronavirus vaccine from June 4 to June 10.

On February 8, last year, the government started a nationwide COVID-19 vaccination campaign, initially for 80 percent of the population aged 18 and above.