For the last two years the entire world was brought to a standstill by the Covid-19 virus, impacting each and every nation whether through all the lives that were lost or the economic turmoil that ensued. To see Bangladesh, a nation that has yet to achieve middle income status, come away relatively unscathed was an unfathomable notion.
And yet here we are.
Bangladesh ranked 5th out of 121 countries in Nikkei’s Covid-19 Recovery Index, the highest among South Asian countries, with a score of 80 points. The ranking becomes all the more impressive when we consider that just two months ago Bangladesh was in the 13th position.
The closest South Asian nation being Nepal at 6th, while Pakistan stands at 23rd, Sri Lanka at 31st, and India is at the 70th position in the rankings.
None of this would have been possible without the government’s vigorous vaccination drives that saw 75.46% of the population receiving at least a single shot of the vaccine while 68.19% being completely vaccinated.
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There were instances last year where the procurement of Covid-19 vaccines saw intermittent halts, mostly due to global supply shortages, but the administration really went above and beyond in ramping up subsequent inoculation drives, thanks to which our country has been seeing a steady downward trend in the number of infections for the last couple of months, with zero deaths being recorded in the last two weeks.
As nations more prosperous than us were crippled by misinformation surrounding the vaccines leading many to doubt them and even reject them, there were no signs of trepidation or misinformed stubbornness on the part of our citizenry.
But while we are far from the initial days of the pandemic, caution still needs to be exercised in order for us to successfully navigate Covid-19’s endgame. Our country has come far in bypassing the more severe impacts of Covid-19, we cannot deviate from this road.
