Bangladesh is all set to start its nationwide Covid-19 vaccine campaign from Sunday, but fewer vaccination teams will be deployed than planned because an insufficient number of people have registered.
The other teams will be kept on standby in case they are needed, health authorities have said.
During a press briefing on Saturday, Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) Director General Dr ABM Khurshid Alam said a total 2,400 vaccination teams would be deployed across the country: 204 teams at 50 vaccine centres in Dhaka and 2,196 teams at 995 centres outside the capital.
According to the instructions of the DGHS, 10 vaccination teams (eight on duty and two in reserve) will be deployed at Sadar hospitals of each district, while three teams (two on duty and one in reserve) will be deployed at other centres. Each team should be able to vaccinate 100-150 people per day.
It was initially planned for 6,725 vaccination teams to be deployed, with 619 teams in reserve. While the original deployment would have been able to vaccinate 670,000-1,000,000 people per day, the reduced number of teams should be able to inoculate about 360,000 people per day.
Over 328,000 people had completed online registration for the vaccine campaign as of 2:30pm on Saturday. Most of the people who registered were government health workers, government employees from other divisions, or health professionals from private hospitals, the DGHS DG said.
The health authorities have also decided to administer second doses of the vaccine four weeks after the first jab, instead of eight weeks.
Regarding the changes to the vaccination plan, DGHS Additional DG (Planning and Development) Dr Meerjady Sabrina Flora said it was a pragmatic decision to reduce the number of deployed teams and keep the rest on stand by.
On-site registration, but no on-the-spot vaccination
After some initial reluctance, the DGHS has decided to allow registration at vaccine centres for those who are not tech savvy. However, people who register at the centres will not get the vaccine the same day.
The vaccine registration website www.surokkha.gov.bd has been open to the public since Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the vaccination campaign on January 27. The Surokkha app is yet to become available on the Google Play Store.
Vaccine management problems at the local level
According to reports from our local correspondents across the country, awareness campaigns on the vaccine program are proving ineffective and preparations are yet to be completed in some areas.
As of Saturday afternoon, many upazilas in Rangpur, Pirojpur, Munshiganj and some other districts were yet to receive the vaccine and the number of people to have registered was low. Many people were also unaware of the benefits and side effects of the vaccine.
Dhaka district DGHS office Civil Surgeon Dr Abu Hussain Md Moinul Ahsan said awareness programs on the vaccine campaign had not had much of a response and it appeared that people wanted to wait before taking the vaccine.
Civil Surgeon of Rajshahi Dr Kaiyum Talukder said he had not received any instructions about awareness campaigns as it was a matter for the local government.
Civil Surgeon of Munshiganj Dr Abul Kalam Azad said his administration had received user IDs and passwords for vaccinators on Saturday afternoon, so they are unsure how many people have registered for the vaccine in the entire area.
According to the DGHS official, a total of 452 people had registered to take vaccines at Munshiganj Sadar Hospital.
Also Read - Vaccination program to begin in Chittagong from Sunday
Dhaka district Civil Surgeon Dr Moinul said many people had made inquiries as they had not received SMS notifications on the vaccination schedule.
“We have decided to vaccinate the people who show up with their registration cards, though they may not have received the SMS,” he added.
He stated that 80% of the vaccines had been sent to designated storage units as of 12pm on Saturday and the rest of the vaccines were scheduled to be sent later in the afternoon.
When asked about the matter, DGHS DG Dr ABM Khurshid Alam said that vaccines and all other required equipment would be sent out by the end of Saturday.
“District and upazila level officials have received their passwords and registered people should get the SMS by [Saturday] night,” he added, mentioning that the vaccination campaign would begin simultaneously at all the upazilas.
On November 5 last year, the Bangladesh government, SII and Beximco signed a tripartite agreement to import the vaccine developed by Oxford University and British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca.
On January 26 this year, the Directorate General of Drug Administration (DGDA) cleared use of the first shipment of the vaccine.
On January 21, Bangladesh received 2 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine as a gift from the Indian government. That was the first ever consignment of vaccines which arrived in Bangladesh.
Dhaka Tribune Rajshahi Correspondent Abdullah Al Dulal, Sylhet correspondent Mohammed Serajul Islam and Chittagong correspondent Anwar Hussain contributed to the report
