As part of the government’s campaign to restrict COVID-19, Bangladesh’s health authorities announced today that they had set a timetable for vaccinating 80 percent of the country’s 170 million people by next year.
Prof Dr Abul Bashar Mohammad Khurshid Alam, Director General of the Directorate General of Health Service (DGHS), stated, “We want to vaccinate 80 percent of the country’s whole population by 2022.”
He told BSS that Bangladesh was on track to purchase around 14 crore vaccine doses by June of next year, with the balance of the vaccines to be procured in the months after that to carry out the plan.
The procurement process, according to the DGHS chairman, is already underway, with agreements in place with several countries and companies.
He said that agreements had been reached to obtain three crore vaccines from Sinopharm in China, one crore from Russia’s Sputnik V, seven crore from Johnson & Johnson and 65 lakh from Pfizer in the United States, and three million from AstraZeneca.
According to DGHS data, Bangladesh has collected about 1.61 crore COVID-19 vaccinations, with nearly 73.50 lakh persons receiving the first injection as of July 25 and over 43 lakh people finishing the course and receiving the second dosage.
So far, 1.18 crore persons have completed the registration process.
After obtaining the immunizations, Alam stated a full-scale vaccination campaign would be conducted in rural areas, and “we are hopeful to acquire these vaccines very soon.”
Despite the pandemic’s worst onslaught, India has vaccinated 43 crore people, according to Shahidullah, since it is conducting a faster inoculation program.
He claims that “quick vaccination coverage will cut both illness and death rates.”
