Health authorities in Bangladesh have decided to start vaccinating the country's expatriate workers next week.
Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) will start inoculation of workers, who are set to go abroad, with the Pfizer-BioNTech shots from July 6, its Line Director Md Shamsul Haque said on Thursday.
Online registration through the ‘Surokkha’ and ‘Ami Probashi’ websites and apps will open from July 5, he added.
Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Imran Ahmad, while inaugurating the vaccination drive for expat workers in the capital's Kurmitola General Hospital, said: "Today we have provided Pfizer jabs to some of our workers.
"However, the whole process is yet to be finalized."
Earlier on Wednesday, the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) decided to suspend all domestic flights in Bangladesh from July 1-7 in line with the government directive regarding the nationwide Covid-19 lockdown.
However, international flights to and from Bangladesh were allowed to operate as per schedule so that outbound migrant workers can reach their workplaces abroad, it said through a press release.
On May 31, Bangladesh had received a consignment of 100,620 doses of the Pfizer vaccine, under the international vaccine-sharing platform Covax.
Pfizer’s one is the third vaccine Bangladesh is currently using in its inoculation drive against Covid-19, which has so far killed more than 14,500 people in the country.
