The government says it has taken all necessary preparation to conduct a nationwide mass campaign to vaccinate 10 million people against Covid-19 on Saturday.
"We will go door to door at grassroots level to fulfill the target of the mass vaccination campaign to be conducted tomorrow across the country… We have taken all necessary preparations to make the mass vaccine campaign a success," Director General of Directorate General of Health Service (DGHS) Prof Dr Abul Bashar Mohammad Khurshid Alam told BSS on Friday.
He attributed the controlling of the Covid third wave that hit Bangladesh mid-January this year to the expansion of vaccination coverage including booster dose.
"We have laid emphasis on vaccination coverage as it (vaccine) has reduced both fatalities and rising of positivity rate of Covid-19... More than 80% deaths linked to coronavirus are of unvaccinated people," Alam added.
The government has set a target to complete the first dose of coronavirus vaccine by Saturday, he said, adding: "We have adequate quantity of vaccines and we urge all eligible people to receive vaccines to protect themselves from the deadly disease."
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Dr Shamsul Haque, member secretary of the National Covid-19 Vaccine Management Taskforce, said people would be allowed to receive Covid vaccines without registration or any documents from any centre.
"The main objective of tomorrow's mass vaccination campaign is to bring all vulnerable groups of people under vaccination coverage... meaning a significant progress of administering the first dose of Covid-19 inoculation will be ensured," he added.
"We will complete administering the first dose of vaccination tomorrow," Shamsul said, adding all respective hospitals and vaccination centres had been directed to immunize coronavirus vaccine without any registration.
"A total of 30,000 vaccination booths will be set up across the country alongside mobile inoculation centres from city corporations to union levels," he said.
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A total of 145,000 health workers will be engaged at the vaccination booths and inoculation centres on Saturday, he added.
The vaccination will start from 8am and will continue throughout the day. Anyone can get a jab only by providing mobile number.
"The people, who received the first dose of the vaccine, will be given a card... this card is given as a document for receiving second or booster dose,” he further added.
After good progress on the first dose of Covid vaccination coverage, the authorities would focus on second and booster dose to scale up vaccination program across the country, Shamsul added.
On the day, three vaccination centres will be set up at each union across the country while five mobile vaccination centres will inoculate the people at each upazila. Besides, 20 mobile centres will extend their services at each district.
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As many as 30 mobile vaccination centres will be set up at each zone of two city corporations of Dhaka while 40 vaccination centres will be set up under Narayanganj city corporation.
A total of 60 mobile vaccination centres will set up at each zone under Barisal, Sylhet, Comilla and Mymensingh while 25 mobile vaccination centres will extend their inoculation services at Khulna, Rajshahi, Chittagong and Rangpur.
A total of 193,767,457 doses of Covid-19 vaccines including booster doses were administered across the country till Thursday.
"A total of 108,448,610 people have so far been given the first dose of Covid-19 vaccine till February 24 while 81,770,135 received the second dose across the country during the same period," according to the data of Management Information System of Directorate General of Health Services.
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As many as 3,548,712 people have so far received the booster dose to prevent the spread of the deadly virus, it added.
Some 37,585 floating people across the country have so far received the first dose of vaccine.
As of February 24, a total of 94,539,187 people have registered to receive vaccines in the country, DGHS sources said. As many as 87,918,501 people have been registered using NID cards, 1,433,390 registered using passports and 5,187,296 registered using birth registration certificates, sources added.
