‘Vaccine coming by February’

As the number of Covid-19 cases continues to go up, Health Secretary Abdul Mannan yesterday said the country would receive the vaccine hopefully by February next year or earlier.

Until the vaccine is available, wearing masks rightly is the key to stay safe from the novel coronavirus, he said.

"We hope we will get corona vaccines very soon. Hopefully by the month of February [2021] or earlier… Until that, however, wearing a mask is the only way to live and prevent transmission," Abdul Mannan said while addressing as chief guest an event organised by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) marking World AIDS Day 2020.

Referring to findings of the World Health Organization (WHO), the secretary said, "Global studies showed that anybody can stay safe, even up to 95 percent if he/she wears a protected mask. So everyone, including children and adults, has to wear masks. Other health regulations, including social distancing, have to be maintained accordingly."

He also said the government has continued the "no mask no service" campaign countrywide and the hospitals are preparing themselves for tackling the possible second wave.

On Monday, Cabinet Secretary Khandker Anwarul Islam said in a press briefing at the secretariat that the government would initially distribute three crore doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine among people for free.

A proposal to buy the vaccine from Serum Institute of India has been sent by the health ministry to the cabinet committee on economic affairs for approval. The committee will sit today to discuss the matter.

"Approval from the Economic Affairs Committee is required as per section 76 of the Public Procurement Rules since it will be bought from a single source," he said.

On November 5, the government signed a trilateral MoU with the Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) and Bangladesh's Beximco Pharmaceuticals Ltd for buying three crore doses of the vaccine.

The finance ministry on November 16 initially allocated some Tk 735.77 crore for the Health Service Division to procure the Covid-19 vaccine.

Apart from the vaccine from SII, Bangladesh will buy 68 million doses from the Gavi under a global arrangement called COVAX. The first shipment of vaccine doses from Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, is likely to be delivered between February and June next year, said officials of the health directorate.

Meanwhile, 31 people were reported dead from Covid-19 in 24 hours till 8:00am yesterday, according to a press release issued from the DGHS.

With this, the total number of deaths rose to 6,675 while the death rate stood at 1.43 percent. Another  2,293  cases were recorded in the same 24 hours taking the total number of positive cases to 4,67,225  added the release.

Against a number of 15,501 tests conducted in those 24 hours throughout the country, the positivity rate was  14.79 percent, while the overall positivity rate stood at 16.76 percent.

At least a total of 2,513 Covid-19 patients have recovered in the same 24 hours.

With this, the total number of recoveries rose to 3,83,224 while the recovery rate stood at 82.02  percent.

Among the 31 deceased yesterday, 17 were males.

Two were aged between 21 and 30 years, two between 31 and 40, one between 41 and 50, seven between 51 and 60 and 19 were above 60 years old, added the release.