Bangladesh on Sunday began administering the Covid-19 vaccine booster shots on a trial basis.
The dry run kicked off by administering the first booster dose to Nurse Runu Veronica Costa, who had also received the first shot of the Covid vaccine in the country, at 12:40pm.
Later on, 36 recipients including five ministers and top health officials, journalists and others received the vaccine till 2pm.
Health Minister Zahid Maleque inaugurated the program at Bangladesh College of Physicians and Surgeons in Dhaka’s Mohakhali.
He said that the frontliners and the elderly would be given priority and the Pfizer Covid vaccine would be administered as booster shots.
The minister also said that the drive would be extended across the country in phases.
He also added that the booster dose would be effective against the Omicron variant of the coronavirus.
Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen, Law Minister Anisul Huq, Health Minister Zahid Maleque, Fisheries and Livestock Minister SM Rezaul Karim and, Post and Telecommunication Minister Mustafa Jabbar, National Prof Shahla Khatun and health directorate chief Dr ABM Khurshid Alam among others received the booster shot.
According to the minister, registration for the booster dose vaccine through the Surokkha platform had been delayed due to upgradation work.
"The ICT Ministry has informed us that the Surokkha platform will be updated by December 28. So, in the meantime, the government will continue to administer booster doses through vaccine cards,” he added.
The Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) said, to avail the booster dose, one has to take the second dose six months prior to receiving the booster dose.
Health Minister Zahid Maleque hands winter clothes to a man at Shuvro Centre in Manikganj, Saturday, December 18, 2021 Dhaka Tribune
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According to the minister, since Pfizer-BioNtech has got the World Health Organization (WHO) approval, Bangladesh will only administer this vaccine as a booster dose.
The minister reaffirmed that the government had enough vaccine doses in hand.
He mentioned that the country would receive 20 million more doses of the Pfizer vaccine next month, and that regular vaccination activities would continue alongside the booster doses.
“Currently, we have 46.3 million doses of Covid vaccines in stock. We will get 90 million vaccine shots by early next year,” the minister said.
Although the government is trying to find a way to provide Covid vaccines to the maximum number of people, the minister said, the government had a target to vaccinate 70% of the total population, or nearly 120 million, within April next year.
He claimed that some 110 million people had been brought under the vaccination program who got at least one dose of the vaccines.
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However, NiTAG (National Immunization Advisory Technical Group) said the booster dose should have been administered only after fully vaccinating 80% of the total population.
DGHS yet to decide on nationwide vaccination
Although the government has already completed a trial run, the health authorities are yet to decide when they could start administering the booster doses on a full scale.
“We have a lot of tasks to complete before going for a nationwide campaign. The data has not been decided yet,” said Dr Shamshul Haque, line director and also the member secretary of Covid-19 vaccination committee.
Talking to several district and division level officials of the DGHS, it has been learned that they did not get any circular about how the booster doses would be administered and managed.
However, they have already completed other preparations like setting up extra booths and appointing vaccine providers.
However, data from the DGHS shows that 68,201,040 people got the first dose and among them only 45,659,607 got both doses.
Earlier, the National Technical Advisory Committee (NTAC) on Covid-19 recommended booster shots to citizens aged 60 or above and front liners.