The Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) is mulling an initiative to vaccinate school dropouts aged 12-17, so that everyone over the age of 12 in the country can be inoculated against Covid-19.
Confirming the matter, National Vaccination Committee Member Secretary Dr Shamshul Haque said they are currently looking for an efficient way to identify the dropouts so that they can be given the vaccines at the earliest.
“We are thinking of sitting with shop owners’ associations and similar organizations to bring them under the vaccine net. Nothing is determined yet, as the head of the committee is currently abroad,” he added.
DGHS sources said efforts to expand the vaccination program dominated an unofficial meeting on the pandemic on Wednesday, as the health authorities have lost all faith in the public’s ability to follow health guidelines.
The meeting, held at DGHS DG Dr ABM Khurshid Alam’s office, was attended by the DG, Additional DG (Admin) Dr Ahmedul Kabir, ADG (Planning) Dr Sabrina Flora, Director (Hospitals) Farid Hossain Miah, Director (NCDs) Dr Robed Amin, Director (Disease Control) Dr Nazmul Islam, and several line directors.
The officials discussed going into lockdown, but none were in favour. They wished to emphasize proper implementation of health rules and vaccination, meeting sources said.
Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) Advisor Mushtaq Hussain said the decision to go into lockdown depends on the infection and death rates, as well as the capacity of hospitals.
He echoed that the most important issue right now is to ensure implementation of health rules and vaccination.
Research has found that although vaccination does not prevent Covid infection, it drastically reduces the chances of developing severe symptoms.
A recent study by the IEDCR on 590 Covid patients found that 47% of them contracted the virus even though they had been fully vaccinated. However, only 12% of the vaccinated people who contracted the disease had to be hospitalized, and only one person died.
‘Vaccination target never changed’
In response to a question during a press briefing in Dhaka on Friday morning, Health Minister Zahid Maleque said the country’s vaccination target has been unchanged throughout the pandemic.
“We are giving utmost priority to the vaccination program and from the very beginning we have been saying that we need to vaccinate at least 120 million people. This amounts to a little over 70% of the country’s population,” he added.
Dr Shamshul Haque, also line director (MNC & AH) of DGHS, said 92.42 million people have been vaccinated with at least one dose, so far. This is 77% of the targeted population and 54% of the total population.
A total 58 million people (48.65% of target, 34% of total population) have received two doses.
“We want to provide two doses to at least 70% of the population by March, although the World Health Organization has asked to do it by June this year,” he added.
He further said that 12.4 million (95%) out of the total 12.9 million students in the country have received their first dose. The administering of second doses to students has begun as well.
“Now we are planning to bring the dropout students aged 12-17 under the vaccination net. It will allow us to bring over 70% of the population under the program,” he added.