Mass Vaccination from Tomorrow: Campaign hardly reaches villages
The mass inoculation against Covid-19 begins tomorrow, but the government's campaign to raise awareness on the vaccination has hardly reached rural areas.
As a result, the number of people going to the digital centres at the unions to register online for the inoculation appears to be very low.
The Daily Star found this after talking to over a dozen such centres, picked randomly. Not a single person went to those centres till yesterday.
The government had instructed around 6,686 digital centres at unions across the country to help people with the registration. The instruction was given keeping in mind that many in the rural area might not have the technical know-how regarding the online registration.
Take the example of one centre in Baldhara union of Manikganj. Md Sabuj Raihan, an entrepreneur from the centre, said no one went there to take help for the registration. "We're waiting for people to come."
Similar is the case with another digital centre in Rajabari union of Gazipur. Shaymal Chandra Das, an entrepreneur there, said people were yet to show up for the registration. "Our centre is ready. We are waiting to assist people," he added.
Asked why they did not initiate any awareness campaign ahead of the mass inoculation, public representatives at the rural level in different districts said they were yet to receive any instruction in this regard from the higher authorities.
Md Jahangir Alam, chairman of Mawna Union Parishad in Gazipur, is one of them.
Echoing Alam's statement, Selina Begum, a women ward coucillor in Telihati union of Gazipur's Sreepur, said she herself was not much aware of the mass campaign.
Asked, SM Tarikul Islam, deputy commissioner of Gazipur, said he had given necessary instructions to the upazila nirbahi officers and that the instruction would hopefully reach others concerned tomorrow.
"Basically, people want to see what others do. So, when the vaccination will start, people will automatically come to the centres and the number of registration will increase," he said.
Health Minister Zahid Maleque on Thursday said the government had instructed local government representatives to ensure registration of people in rural areas.
Around 2.72 lakh people registered for the vaccination till yesterday by visiting the government-launched website surokkaha.gov.bd, said officials concerned. The government plans to vaccinate 35 lakh people in the first month.
After the website was launched on January 27, the registration progressed slowly with some complaining about difficulties in logging onto the website.
The health minister told The Daily Star that people were showing reluctance to register. "People want to see what others do. After the start of the inoculation campaign, people's confidence will increase and so will the number of registration."
Shahadat Hossain, an entrepreneur of Dogachi union digital centre in Pabna, said the registration was a new thing to many. "People are not familiar with it. It will take some time," he said, adding that he too hoped that the registration would gain momentum after the start of the vaccination.
Dr Ibrahim Titon, civil surgeon of Rajbari, said the registration process was yet to scale up at the community clinic level as the registration's task was given to the digital centres.
"Now, we are helping people get registered at upazila and district hospitals," he added.
Dilsad Begum, deputy commissioner of Rajbari, said they held meetings with various stakeholders and started encouraging people at the union level for the registration.
A total of 7,344 teams will be deployed across the country to carry out the mass vaccination campaign. There will be two vaccinators and four volunteers in each team that will inoculate around 150 people a day. The vaccinators will include nurses.
The government has already trained 14,688 vaccinators and 29,376 volunteers to administer the vaccine doses. There will be three vaccine centres in every upazila, officials said.
Bangladesh received 50 lakh doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine from Serum Institute of India (SII) on January 25. The government purchased three crore shots of the Oxford vaccine from SII. As per the contract, Bangladesh will get 50 lakh doses every month.
The country has also received 20 lakh doses of the Oxford vaccine as a gift from the Indian government.
Besides, the COVAX programme, led by the World Health Organisation and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, has committed to give Bangladesh a total of 6.8 crore vaccine shots. COVAX published a list on Wednesday saying Bangladesh will get around 1.28 crore shots of the vaccine in the first quarter of 2021.
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