‘But what about the rest of us?’

The Covid-19 vaccination campaign is about to kick off in the country, however, training of health officials, workers and volunteers in this regard is yet to start in Chattogram.

Not just that, such programme at district level, which was supposed to start on January 23 has been delayed. Asked, Sheikh Fazle Rabbi, civil surgeon of Chattogram, said it would start in a day or two.

He said a total of 28 health workers and 56 volunteers would be trained up to conduct vaccination in 15 upazilas.

"We sent two health officials to Dhaka to attend training. They have already returned. They would train others at district and upazila levels. It would be completed by January 30," he said.

Although the civil surgeon said a list of frontliners who would receive the vaccine on priority basis was ready, he failed to mention the number immediately. "I can tell you the number after seeing the file," he said.

According to sources at the civil surgeon's office, Chattogram district will get around eight lakh vaccines in different stages.         

A central storage has been set up at the civil surgeon's office in port city, which has a capacity to store around one lakh vaccines, maintaining the temperature between 2 and 8 degree Celsius. Apart from that, there are seven feeder storages in the city with a capacity to store 10,000 vaccines.

Besides, each of the 14 upazila health complexes can store 10,000 vaccines. One of the upazilas does not have a health complex.

"As per the government guideline, the frontliners would be given priority for vaccination," said Fazle Rabbi, adding, "We have written to all government, public and private hospitals to send us a list of doctors, nurses and health workers by January 18. We have already got such lists from most of them."

This correspondent spoke to medical officers, health officials and workers in different upazila health complexes to know about their preparations for Covid-19 vaccination programme. Most of them said they are ready to conduct the campaign and the health complexes were equipped to store vaccines.

Monjur Morshed, resident medical officer of Satkania Upazila Health Complex, said their health complex can store around 10,000 vaccines.

"We have sent a list of health workers who would receive the vaccine to the civil surgeon's office as per their letter," he said, adding, "However, we are yet to receive any update on training of health officials and workers who would conduct the vaccination programme."

"We believe, it would not be a difficult task as we have trained manpower who are experienced in Expanded Programme for Immunization (EPI) campaigns," he said.

Asked about training the health workers, Dr Selim Akter Chowdhury, chief health officer of Chattogram City Corporation, said the two health officials of the city corporation who attended the vaccination training programme in Dhaka would start training others soon.

Contacted, Dr Hasan Shahriar Kabir, director (Chattogram division) of Directorate General of Health Services, said the Covid-19 vaccination programme would be conducted by the city corporation, district and upazila administrations. "As far as I know, all the districts in the division are almost ready," he said.    

Meanwhile, residents are worried when they will get the vaccine.

"I have heard that vaccines would be given to the health officials and workers first," said 70-year-old Babul Dutta, a resident of the city's Jamal Khan area. "We understand that it's necessary to vaccinate the frontliners but what about the rest of us? When will we be vaccinated? The government should make that clear."

Abdur Rahman (65) said, "Earlier, we heard that the elderly and people with comorbidity would  get the vaccine first... but we are not sure as there is no clear announcement in this regard."

"Due to the pandemic, we are afraid of going out... We have been eagerly waiting for  the vaccination to start," said the resident of Panchlaiah area.

Asked, the civil surgeon said it would take a while to start vaccination for general people as they will prioritise the frontliners first.

As of yesterday, he said a total of 32,578 people have been tested Covid-19 positive in Chattogram. Of them, 367 died and 30,465 recovered.