With the stock of Covid-19 vaccine (Covishield) the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) has at the moment, it will be able to administer second doses of the vaccine for one more week.
Prof Dr Nazmul Islam, spokesperson for the Covid 19 management of DGHS, made the statement during the regular briefing on Sunday afternoon.
He said with the quantity of vaccine doses currently at their hand, it would not be possible to vaccinate all the people who have already taken the first dose.
The government is trying their best to collect Oxford- AstraZeneca vaccine from other sources so that the first jab takers could get the second jab on time. The interim period of the two doses have also been extended from eight weeks to 16 weeks. So, there is still time to vaccinate these people, he added.
Replying to a question about continuation of providing second dose, he said it depends on the stock at the vaccination centres.
“With the stock we have at our hand right now, the vaccination program could be continued for a week maximum,” he added.
He said people have to take the same vaccine for both doses.
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According to DGHS over 48,900 people got their second dose on Sunday. Till now over 5.8 million people got their first dose of the vaccine, among whom only 3.7million people got their second dose.
The country has managed to receive 10.3 million Oxford –AstraZeneca vaccine, 7 million from purchase and 3.3 million as gift from India. Among the 10.3 million doses the country has already administrated over 9.5 million doses and only has 0.8 million doses in stock.
However, 2.11 million people are still waiting to get their second dose.
Prof Nazmul, also director (disease control) of the directorate said discussion is going on over getting Sinopharm vaccine from China.
“We are expecting a positive update over the contract for the purchase or production [of Sinopharm vaccine] at the end of this month or early next month,” he added.
Besides, the country has also received 500,000 Sinopharm vaccines from China as gift on May 12. DGHS is said to be in the process of administrating the vaccine to the people who have already registered to take the vaccine.