Achieving the mass inoculation target

While as per the National Vaccine Deployment Plan, 70 lakh people should have been inoculated in the first month of the mass vaccination campaign that began on February 7, the government has achieved only 51.15 percent of the target, with 35.81 lakh people getting their first shot of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine as of March 4. There have been some gaps in the government's vaccine deployment plan, which is why the number of people getting registered for the vaccine is still not satisfactory. However, it is encouraging that Bangladesh's performance in the global context is good—it holds the18th position among all countries, with 2.17 percent of its population immunised till March 4.

There have been some major limitations in the government's vaccination plan from the very beginning, as its inoculation programme started without conducting any major awareness campaigns. It took people quite some time to gain trust in the effectiveness of the vaccines. Now that the urban educated people from well-off backgrounds are registering for vaccinations online through the Surokkha app, the urban poor are lagging far behind in the race. Needless to say, many people are finding the registration process quite difficult. Moreover, fear and superstition surrounding the vaccine are still pervasive among the urban poor and the rural people in general. In addition, the lower participation of women compared to men in the vaccination programme is a big issue that should be addressed by the authorities—of the 35.81 lakh people vaccinated till March 4, only 12,87,100 were women. Furthermore, while some districts of the country vaccinated quite a large number of their population, the performance of many other districts is still not satisfactory, which only reveals the inefficiency of some of the district authorities.

As we identify the reasons behind the slow pace of vaccination in the country, we hope that the government will consider these factors while working towards achieving its vaccination target. Since people living in urban areas responded more than those in rural areas, awareness needs to be raised amongst rural populations about the need to get vaccinated. The digital centres, set up by the Local Government Division in every union, should assist people in rural areas in registering for inoculation. Moreover, more vaccination centres should be set up in remote areas and online registration support should be taken to people's doorsteps, as suggested by health experts. Last but not the least, the authorities must address the huge gender gap that exists in the mass inoculation campaign to make the programme a success.