Covid Vaccination: Govt plans to ease age bar

The government plans to lower the age limit for Covid-19 vaccination as it wants to inoculate students aged above 18 and take them back to classrooms by reopening universities.

"Now the age limit is 40. We're planning to bring it down to 18-20. We will make the final decision in consultation with the education ministry," said ABM Khurshid Alam, director general of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).

Teachers who have not got the jabs yet will also be included in the vaccination campaign, he told The Daily Star.

"We are in close contact with the education ministry. But everything depends on the availability of vaccines. We have made good progress on vaccine procurement. We are hopeful that we can start vaccinating university students within a month."

The DG said the coronavirus positivity rate was coming down and it would dip further if everyone followed the health safety guidelines.

Last week, Education Minister Dipu Moni said they were relying on the suggestions of the National Technical Advisory Committee (NTAC) on Covid-19, which has recommended reopening educational institutions once the infection rate drops below 5 percent.

The positivity rate stood at 9.30 percent yesterday, while the overall positivity rate was 13.49 percent, shows DGHS data.

Contacted, NTAC member M Iqbal Arsalan said they were yet to hold any meeting on the issue.

"I think we can observe the situation till next week and then we may go for a decision."

Arsalan suggested that the universities can reopen in phases and students be inoculated accordingly.

"First public universities, then private universities and then colleges. But this plan depends on the availability of vaccine," he added.

A good number of teachers and staffers have already been vaccinated.

Dipu Moni said the government has a plan to inoculate 1.3 lakh university students.

Educational institutions have remained closed since March last year due to the pandemic. Last week, the government extended the closure till June 12.

At present, educational institutions are holding online classes and the government is broadcasting educational programmes on state-run television channels.

Dipu Moni also said that if the current Covid situation improves, the government will reopen educational institutions on June 13.

The government has already approved the use of Chinese Sinopharm vaccine and is expecting to sign a contract soon to purchase 1.5 crore doses. Once the deal is signed, the country is expected to get 50 lakh doses of vaccines a month from June to August.

Apart from this, under the Covax facilities, a global vaccine alliance, Bangladesh will get 1.06 lakh Pfizer vaccine shots tomorrow.

Health officials said Pfizer vaccine doses will be administered mostly in the capital, considering the lack of facilities to store those outside the city.

China has already gifted Bangladesh five lakh doses of Sinopharm vaccine and promised to give another six lakh shots.

The vaccine doses are being administered to medical students.

Seeking anonymity, a top health official told The Daily Star that the inoculation of university students is likely to begin once the first consignment of the Chinese vaccine arrives.

The government suspended administering the first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine on April 26 soon after India temporarily banned export of Covid vaccine.

Bangladesh purchased three crore doses of AstraZeneca vaccine from Serum Institute of India and was supposed to receive 50 lakh jabs per month for six months from January to June.

Serum delivered the first consignment of 50 lakh doses in January, but shipped only 20 lakh in February. No other shipment has been made since then as the Indian government banned export of vaccine to meet its domestic demand.