Bangladesh is the first among the South Asian countries to have successfully tackled the Covid-19 pandemic, Health Minister Zahid Maleque said on Sunday, a day after more than one crore people got their first shots under a special nationwide drive.
Maleque said this while speaking as a special guest at the orientation program of the 42nd BCS cadre at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in the capital.
He said during the special drive on Saturday a total of 12 million people were administered Covid-19 vaccines, 11.1 million of them received the first dose overshooting the target set by the government.
The target was to inoculate 10 million people with the first Covid-19 vaccine dose.
With that, he said, 73% of the country’s population has been brought under vaccination.
Bangladesh has been able to reach the 100% vaccination target set by the World Health Organisation, he said adding that the special mass drive will continue for two more days.
The minister said the government has invested energy, labour and money to ensure that the country has enough laboratories, oxygen plants, hospital beds, doctors, nurses and telemedicine facilities to become the first among the South Asian countries in successfully handling the pandemic.
So far, up to 206 million doses have been administered across the country, he said.
Maleque reminded the newly appointed doctors of increasing infectious diseases and asked them to prescribe proper treatment by taking care of the resistance to antibiotics.
