DGHS: First dose of Covid-19 vaccine to continue

Bangladesh will continue administering the first dose of the vaccine, said the DGHS on Monday.

The government will start administering the second dose of Covid-19 vaccine from Thursday (April 8) as the countrywide vaccination campaign was launched on February 7.

“Those who have received the first dose of Covid-19 vaccine will start receiving SMS for the second dose from today [Monday],” Spokesperson of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) Prof Dr Md Nazmul Islam told BSS on Monday night.

Simultaneously, the government will continue administering the first dose of the vaccine and those who have registered will also receive confirmation SMS, he added.

Also Read - Decision on lockdown extension by Thursday

Referring to a meeting on “Covid-19 Vaccine Preparedness and Deployment Core Committee” held on Sunday (April 4), Nazmul said: “The authorities of DGHS decided to begin the second dose of Covid-19 vaccine on April 8.”

The DGHS sources said as per the decision, the countrywide vaccination campaign will be continued during “lockdown” and the month of Ramadan.

From Tuesday, Beximco Pharmaceuticals Ltd will start transporting Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines to different district-level government storages as per the distribution list.

As of April 5, the number of vaccine receivers was 55,39,494. Among the vaccine receivers, 34,35,701 are male and 21,03,793 female . The inoculation would be administered among people in government hospitals up to upazila-level while 69,45,678 people got registered till 5:30pm Monday.