The government is planning a mega inoculation drive to administer the Covid-19 vaccine to as many unvaccinated people as possible before stopping the administration of first doses from February 26.
Furthermore, anyone over the age of 12 will be able to get the first dose of the vaccine without registration, national identity cards (NIDs) or birth certificates until the last day of the first dose campaign.
Those who get the vaccine without registration will be given a special card that they can use to get their second and booster doses when they go for their first dose. They can also use the card to register on the Surokkha website, according to the health authorities.
Thousands of special teams will be deployed across the country on February 26 for the mega drive. Their target will be to administer 10 million doses, Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) Line Director (MNC&AH) Dr Shamsul Haque said during a health bulletin yesterday.
He added that the special proof of vaccination cards had already been sent to districts across the country at the time he was briefing the media.
The government had initially targeted vaccinating 80% of the country’s population. At the World Health Organization’s direction, the target was revised to 70%, which amounts to about 120 million people.
According to the DGHS, around 101.2million had received one dose, 72.9 million people two doses, and 2.8 million people three doses as of Tuesday.
The government has been administering about 300,000 doses each day, so they expect to vaccinate about 2.4 million people in the eight days till February 26.
Regarding the target for the mega vaccination drive, DGHS Director General Dr ABM Khurshid Alam said: “We will welcome it if more than 10 million people go to vaccine centres on February 26. Special teams will be deployed to ensure that we get as close to the target as possible.”
Dr Shamsul Haque said three camps would be set up at every union parishad for the mega drive. Five extra special teams will be deployed at every upazila, while 20 teams will be deployed at every district level zone. There will be three teams deployed at every ward of a municipality.
The number of teams will vary in city corporation areas. A total of 30 teams will be deployed in every zone of the Dhaka North and South City Corporations as well as Gazipur City Corporation areas, 40 teams at Narayanganj city corporation areas, and 60 teams each at Barishal, Sylhet, Comilla and Mymensingh city corporation areas.
As many as 25 teams will be deployed in each zone of the Khulna, Rajshahi, Rangpur and Chittagong city corporation areas.
“The teams will help regular teams at centres that are crowded. Every team in upazilas, districts and municipalities must administer 300 doses of vaccines on the day, while teams in city corporation areas have to administer 500 doses,” the line director added.
“WHO has set a target of inoculating 70% of the population within June and Bangladesh wants to achieve it beforehand. We also want to provide as many booster doses as possible,” Dr Shamsul Haque further said.
Earlier on Tuesday, DGHS DG Dr ABM Khurshid Alam, through a sudden press brief, announced that the authorities would not administer the first dose of Covid 19 vaccine beyond February 26.
The vaccination program started nationwide on February 7 last year.
