The government has so far spent around Tk40,000 crore for purchasing Covid-19 vaccines and on other vaccination purposes, Health Minister Zahid Maleque has said.
He was speaking at an event in Manikganj on Friday afternoon.
The trial run for the inoculation of children aged 5-11 started on Thursday, he mentioned, adding that the vaccination of 22 million children of the country would require 45 million doses, 3 million of which had already been received from the WHO.
The health minister commended the fact that Bangladesh had started inoculating its children before its neighbouring countries.
“Bangladesh ranks fifth in the world in controlling Covid-19. Some 300 million doses have been given to the people of the country,” he added.
Drawing a comparison, he said 29,000 people had died of Covid-19in Bangladesh, compared to 1.1 million in the United States, 1 million in India and about 200,000 to 300,000 in every European country.
Fuel price hike
Regarding the fuel price hike, Maleque said Bangladesh was densely populated and dependent on energy.
“Global fuel prices have tripled with no fuel available in many countries. Bangladesh needs to import fuel. However, our prime minister has already taken precautionary measures.”
Ukraine-Russia war
The health minister said the situation in Ukraine and Russia was affecting the whole world. There was a shortage of food, fuel and basic necessities across the globe, he added.
He said many countries were going through chaos while Sri Lanka had shut down everything, adding that even the US and UK had to ration their use of fuel and other items.
