Health and Family Welfare Minister Zahid Maleque on Sunday said that the Covid-19 situation in Bangladesh is under control as the government led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is sincerely dealing with the pandemic.
“When almost the entire world is struggling to control the coronavirus crisis, Bangladesh has been able to contain the outbreak of the deadly virus,” he told the inaugural function of Vitamin A-plus campaign-2020 at the Shishu Hospital in Dhaka, said an official press release.
Director General of Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) Prof Dr Abul Bashar Mohammad Khurshid Alam and heads of other relevant organizations, among others, addressed the function with Additional Secretary of Health Service Division Mostofa Kamal in the chair.
The minister said Bangladesh witnessed a low Covid-19 fatality rate as the government has taken multiple preventive measures to deal with the outbreak.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been lauded globally as her government is effectively handling the coronavirus with 1.45% death rate from the deadly disease, he added.
The countrywide Vitamin A-plus campaign is formally inaugurated on Sunday, which will be observed from October 4 to 17 to feed Vitamin A-plus capsules to over two crore children aged between six to 59 months.
“A total of 1,20,000 centres have been set up across the country to administer vitamin A-plus capsules to the children…health codes will be strictly maintained during the nationwide vitamin A plus campaign,” Maleque added.
Maleque said health workers and volunteers will feed vitamin-A Plus capsules from 120,000 centres, which will remain open from 8am to 4pm.
He said: “We want to prevent childhood blindness by administering Vitamin A-plus capsule. Blindness problem has been reduced significantly in the country through launching Vitamin A-plus campaign.”
At present, less than one percent children in the country suffer from night blindness for Vitamin A deficiency while night blindness was 4.1% during the initial stage of the campaign, Maleque added.
Other speakers said the government is launching Vitamin A-plus capsule two times a year as it deposits up to six months in children’s body.
Alongside having Vitamin A-plus capsules, guardians should feed their children natural foods including vegetable and fish to avoid vitamin A deficiency, they added.
The health ministry sources said two trained volunteers would work at each centre.
Among the total children, around 2,700,000 babies aged between six to 11 months will be fed one blue colour Vitamin A capsule each, while around 1.93 crore babies aged between 12 to 59 months would be fed red colour capsules.