The country’s health authorities say they were forced to increase the minimum age back to 25 for walk-in vaccinations since lowering the age to 18 may lead to difficulties in vaccine management due to issues with national identity cards (NIDs).
Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) Director General Dr ABM Khurshid Alam made the announcement during a press conference on the inauguration of the special walk-in vaccination program on Friday.
The Health Ministry in late July said they had plans to inoculate 10 million people through the walk-in vaccination program in August. Also in July, the minimum age for vaccination was lowered to 18.
Following a series of meetings with top officials in districts and divisions, the minimum age was raised back to 25 on Thursday, just two days before the walk-in vaccination program is to be inaugurated.
The DGHS DG on Friday said the NIDs were mandatory to avail walk-in vaccination and many people aged 18-25 are yet to get their NIDs.
“If scores of people show up for walk-in vaccination without NID cards, it will create chaos at the vaccine centres,” Dr Khurshid Alam added.
According to the DGHS, people who are yet to register will only be able to avail vaccines at the makeshift centres set up specifically for the special walk-in vaccination campaign.
There will be three booths each at 4,600 centres at the union level and 433 centres in city corporation areas.
Besides, 1,054 single-booth centres will be set up in municipalities.
As many as 200 people will be vaccinated at each booth in unions and municipalities, while up to 350 people will receive the vaccine at each booth in city corporation areas.
“The government aims to vaccinate 3.2 million people on the inaugural day,” Dr Khurshid Alam said, adding that the government was testing its vaccination capacity with the program.
“We will be unable to vaccinate the required 80% of the population without mass vaccination campaigns,” he further said.
The walk-in vaccination program is set to run for three days in city corporation areas and for just one day at unions and municipalities.
DGHS criticized for not being cooperative
Reporters attending the press conference criticized DGHS top officials for not being cooperative with media personnel and giving different information at different times.
Some of the reporters said they had been unable to reach the DGHS spokespersons on Covid-19, namely Dr Nazmul Islam and Dr Robed Amin.
Several officials, the member secretary of DGHS’s vaccination deployment committee and an additional DG who is connected to the vaccination process, have been giving conflicting reports.
The member secretary (Dr Shamshul Haque) only spoke to specific media outlets and it is not acceptable to leave others out, the reporters alleged.
DG Prof Khurshid Alam said he would try to find a way to improve cooperation between the DGHS officials and the media personnel.
Health Minister Zahid Maleque was scheduled to attend the briefing, but he could not do so due to illness, the DGHS chief added.