Covid Vaccination: Healthcare staffers’ training starts

The government would start providing training to the healthcare staffers from today in an effort to ensure safe and efficient Covid-19 vaccine administration.

Around 40,000 healthcare workers and volunteers at different levels -- from national to upazila -- will receive the two-week long training both physically and virtually.

Besides, syringes and safety boxes required for vaccination will arrive by next week.

Shamsul Haque, line director of MNC&AH unit of Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), told The Daily Star that they were going to start te training at national level.

"Gradually, the training will be expanded to district and upazila level."

A total of 7,344 vaccination teams would work to implement the vaccination programme.

Each team will have two vaccine injectors and four volunteers. Training and orientation of the workers are underway and will be completed by January 27, said the official.

He also said that a total of 3.30 crore AD syringes are required to administer the vaccines and the order to supply the vaccine has already been placed.

"We don't need all the syringe at a time. We will administer 50 lakh vaccines at the first instalment. Hopefully we will get the required amount of syringes in the next week," he added.

Apart from the syringes, safety boxes would also be required. "The safety boxes will also arrive on time," he said.

The government said on Monday that Covid-19 vaccination would start in the country from the first week of February.

The first instalment of the Oxford-AstraZeneca's Covid-19 vaccine from Serum Institute of India (SII) would arrive by January 25. A total of 50 lakh doses will be administered in the first month among 25 lakh people, two doses per person.

As per the contract, Beximco Pharmaceuticals Ltd will deliver the three crore doses to the district level EPI storages from SII in six phases.

Meanwhile, the government was preparing the response to COVAX in a positive note that it would take the Pfizer vaccine that requires to store at minus 70 degrees Celsius.

The government decided primarily to take the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine from COVAX despite challenges of maintaining the cold chain and ensuring the supply of the particular syringes required.

The COVAX programme, led by the World Health Organization and global alliance GAVI, has offered Bangladesh around four lakh doses of the vaccine developed by US drugmaker Pfizer and Germany's BioNTech.

COVAX has promised to deliver a total of 2 billion doses of vaccines to at least 172 countries by the end of this year.

"We have drafted the reply and hopeful to give it by January 18," said a top official of DGHS wishing not to be named.

Meanwhile, Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) in a press statement urged the government to ensure transparency at level in Covid-19 vaccine purchase and distribution in priority basis.

The corruption watchdog stressed to follow the rules and legal procedures in the vaccination programme to avert corruption.