Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday outlined who will get how many Covid-19 vaccine doses among the priority groups.
She placed the statistics in this regard in Parliament replying to a tabled question from Awami League MP Ahsanul Islam Titu (Tangail-6).
According to the statistics, the possible vaccine recipients are all the 452,027 government health workers and 600,000 private health workers (of approved private entities), who are directly engaged in providing Covid-19 health services.
The priority groups are:
* 210,000 freedom fighters
* 546,620 members of law enforcement agencies
* 360,913 members from the military and civil defence forces
* 50,000 officials and employees working in the offices which are indispensable for governing the state
* 50,000 frontline media men
* 1,312,973 elderly people from the 80-plus age group
* 10,326,658 elderly people from the 64-79 age group
* 178,298 elected representatives
* 150,000 frontline employees of the city corporations and municipalities
* 541,000 religious representatives
* 75,000 people engaged in funeral works
* 400,000 staff engaged in emergency water, gas, sewerage, power, fire service and transport services
* 625,000 people with weak immunity (tuberculosis, AIDS and cancer patients)
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Other groups who will receive the vaccine on a priority basis are:
* 150,000 workers of land, river and airports
* 120,000 expatriate unskilled workers
* 400,000 government employees engaged in district and upazila-level emergency public services
* 197,621 officials and employees of banks
* 21,863 players of the national teams (including football, cricket and hockey national teams)
* 170,000 people from buffer, emergency and outbreak groups
The prime minister said Bangladesh will get 68 million doses of vaccine for 20% of its population that means for 34 million people from the World Health Organization (WHO), Covax facility.
Sheikh Hasina said the list of the vaccine recipients of priority groups was prepared considering the guidelines of the Scientific Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) of the WHO and the country's context.
In the first phase of vaccine distribution, 15 million people (8.86% of population) will get two doses of inoculation over a span of two weeks in Bangladesh, she added.
The vaccine will be preserved in 64 district EPI stores and 483 EPI stores of the country, said the prime minister.
On January 25, Bangladesh received the first consignment of the vaccine, containing five million doses of Covishield, the Covid-19 vaccine developed by Oxford-AstraZeneca and manufactured by Serum Institute of India (SII).
Earlier January 21, Dhaka received two million doses of Covid-19 vaccine as the Indian government sent the jabs as a gift to Bangladesh.
With the January 25 ones, seven million doses of vaccine are now there in government hands for launching the national vaccination against Covid-19.
Bangladesh signed an agreement with the Serum Institute of India (SII) through Beximco Pharmaceuticals Ltd to procure 30 million doses of Covishield.
