Shawdesh Desk:

A large number of unused coronavirus vaccines may expire soon as many people didn’t receive the jabs yet.

“Around 9.4 million people are yet to receive the second dose and around 3.4 million people are yet to take the first dose of the coronavirus vaccines. The unused vaccines will expire in November this year. No person aged 18 and above will get the first dose and second dose after November,” Dr. Md Shamsul Haque, Line Director (MNC & AH) of the DGHS told the Daily Sun.

He said the government will arrange a mass vaccination campaign soon to inoculate people with first, second and third or booster doses.

“It may be the last vaccination campaign. However, only children will be inoculated with the first dose and second dose after November while eligible people also can receive the booster shots,” Shamsul Haque said.

According to sources at the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), the government has collected around 300 million shots of the vaccine and administered a total of around 288.5 million shots as first, second and third or booster doses.

Some 129,650,210 doses have been administered as the first dose 120,297,369 as the second dose and 3,86,38440 jabs have been administered as the third or booster dose in the country till July 24.

“Some 19.3 million jabs are still in stock,” Dr. Md. Shamsul Haque, Line Director (MNC & AH) of the DGHS said at a meeting of the DGHS on July 25.

“A total of 12.7 million people didn’t receive the corona jabs yet. This large number of vaccines remain in stock. And the vaccines will expire in November,” the DGHS official added.

The health ministry sources said if the rest of the people do not get vaccinated, a large number of vaccine doses will expire after November, which may create a bad impression about the country across the world.

The DGHS sources said permanent vaccination centres have been set up in upazila health complexes, district general hospitals and medical college hospitals across the country. People can get the vaccines as per their necessity from the centres every day except for government holidays.

Shamsul Haque said if someone can’t complete registration through Surokkha app, they still can receive the vaccine by completing a hard copy registration from the centres.

“No vaccine for first and second doses will remain in the stock after November this year,” he added.

Health Minister Zahid Maleque at a press conference recently said the government has already received 100 million shots of vaccines from Covax.

“We got assurance of getting another 30 million doses of Pfizer vaccines. We have also taken initiatives to administer the Covid-19 vaccines among children aged 5-11 years,” he added.

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

The government has already conducted special vaccination campaigns across the country, alongside the regular vaccination activities to bring the maximum number of people under the vaccination programme, but many people have not received the vaccine yet.

On 8 February 8 2021, the government launched a nationwide vaccination campaign, initially for 80 percent of the population aged 18 and above.