The second day of the nationwide mass vaccination campaign was conducted successfully as the drive was thronged by spontaneous participation of vaccine seekers.
"We have extended the campaign till tomorrow... the countrywide mass vaccination campaign, that began at 8am yesterday morning, has set a new record for administering over 12 million people in a single day," Health Minister Zahid Maleque told a function at Bangabandhu International Conference Center (BICC) in Dhaka on Sunday.
Of the total vaccination doses, 1,11,74,725 people received the first dose of coronavirus vaccines on the first day of the campaign while 8,15,073 received the second dose and 73,855 received booster dose during the same period, he added.
With Saturday’s total doses of vaccine, the government has brought 73% people under vaccination coverage with first, second and booster doses, Maleque added.
Bangladesh has set an impressive success on vaccination coverage as the country has already inoculated 21 crore doses of vaccine, he said adding, "We have been able to control three waves of coronavirus due to multiple initiatives including expansion of vaccination program."
"Bangladesh has extended the one-day campaign into three-day drive to reach fully the unvaccinated people with first dose... we are receiving unprecedented response from all levels of people across the country," Director General of Directorate General of Health Service (DGHS) Prof Dr Abul Bashar Mohammad Khurshid Alam told BSS.
"Like the first day of the campaign, all eligible people were thronging designated vaccination centres and booths to receive Covid-19 jabs...we are monitoring the nationwide mass vaccination campaign to make it successful to fight the disease," Alam added.
Earlier, the government set a target to complete the first dose of coronavirus vaccine on Saturday, but it (government) decided to continue the campaign till tomorrow, he added.
"We have adequate quantity of vaccines and urge all eligible people to receive vaccines to protect themselves from the deadly disease," Alam added.
"Bangladesh has set the day-long nationwide campaign that began at 8am yesterday morning aiming to vaccinate one crore people but we have extended the drive till February 28 to bring all eligible people under first dose of vaccination coverage," Health Minister Zahid Maleque has said at a virtual function held at Manikganj district yesterday (February 26).
Second and booster doses will continue alongside the mass vaccination campaign, he said, describing the mass vaccination campaign as one of the largest one in the world.
While visiting different vaccination centres in the capital, people were seen queuing from early hours of Sunday to receive the Covid-19 jabs.
There are a huge number of people, who are still out of vaccination coverage, the DGHS chief said this campaign will make considerable contribution to bring all under vaccination coverage.
Dr Ayesha Akhter, a physician of TB hospital at Shyamoli said: "On the second day of the campaign, people started gathering in our hospital from the early hours."
"A large number of people received vaccines from our hospital on the first day of the campaign and we have changed the scheduled time of vaccination as a huge crowd thronged in our hospital during the past two days of the campaign to receive the vaccine," she added.
As of Saturday, a total of 9,60,94,750 people have been registered to receive Covid-19 vaccines in the country, DGHS sources said.
