Bangladesh is planning to introduce walk-in vaccination at the union level, allowing citizens to be vaccinated without having to present their national identity (ID) cards, as Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has instructed to ramp up the country’s vaccination drive.
Following an inter-ministerial meeting chaired by interior minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, health minister Zahid Maleque told a media briefing, “We have constructed vaccination stations at union levels… the people will get vaccines there displaying their national ID cards.”
Maleque went on to say that the current shutdown would not be adequate to stop the epidemic, therefore the decision was made to boost the vaccination campaign at the grassroots level.
Kamal backed up the health minister, saying the decision was made in accordance with the premier’s direction to let everyone over the age of 18 to get the vaccine by simply showing their national ID cards.
He stated that the campaign would be monitored by law enforcement officials.
The conference was attended by Cabinet Secretary Khandker Anwarul Islam and other concerned secretaries, as well as representatives from the military forces, police, and the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), who had been summoned to enforce a statewide two-week lockdown until August 5.
People without national ID cards would get vaccinated as well, according to Islam, through on-the-spot registration under a specific arrangement at the union level.
