Health Minister Zahid Maleque has called on the people to register for the nationwide vaccine campaign as soon as possible, with the program set to get underway on February 7.
“Online registration is a must. If you are unable to complete online registration, get someone to help. You can get help at union digital centres,” he said during a program at the Radisson Hotel in Dhaka on Tuesday.
The minister also suggested that on-site vaccine registration will be available at vaccine centres for people who were not technologically literate, but officials at the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) could not confirm this.
DGHS Director General Dr ABM Khurshid Alam could not be reached for comment.
The DGHS is the government body primarily responsible for the implementation of the vaccine campaign. It had previously backtracked on plans to offer on-site vaccine registration as it would cause too much chaos at the vaccine centres.
Instead, the DGHS on Sunday said people would be able to get help with registration from the ICT Division prior to the start of the vaccine campaign.
“Health workers will be extremely busy with the administering of the vaccines when the campaign starts. Asking them to complete online registration for general people as well would place a huge burden on them and create unnecessary complexities,” a high official of DGHS told Dhaka Tribune on Tuesday.
The official also said the availability of on-site registration might discourage the public from completing online registration.
Also read- Covid-19: Daily test positivity rate stays below 4% in Bangladesh
During the program at the hotel on Tuesday, Health Service Division Secretary Abdul Mannan said the government was working on alternative means of registration for those who cannot complete online registration.
“We are keeping an eye on the matter so that none of the doses go to waste,” he added.
Upazilas to receive vaccine soon
Health Minister Zahid Maleque said all the districts had already received allotted doses of the Covid-19 vaccine and they would be distributed to the upazilas soon.
The minister urged local leaders and activists to make sure that people registered and went to the vaccine centres once the campaign began.
He also expressed satisfaction with the current Covid-19 situation in the country, as the test positivity rate had come down to around 3%.
“Our history has proved that vaccination is needed for such diseases and we have no way other than vaccinating people,” he said, calling on people from rural areas to register and get vaccinated.
Altogether 567 people have already been vaccinated in Dhaka as part of a dry run of the vaccine program.
