Covid Jabs For Schoolchildren: Campaign goes outside Dhaka

The vaccination programme for schoolchildren aged between 12 and 17 would be expanded outside the capital.

Students in Manikganj and Kishoreganj have already received jabs on the second day of the vaccination drive amid some mismanagements.

Talking to The Daily Star, Shamsul Haque, member secretary of the Covid-19 Vaccine Management Taskforce Committee of DGHS, yesterday said, "We have plans to set up vaccination centres [dedicated for students] in every district."

The government has around 80 lakh Pfizer vaccines in hand and more vaccines will come in the coming weeks, he said.

According to the Department of Information and Communication Technology, around 474,835 students submitted their National ID card numbers from various educational institutions.

A total of 131,771 students have already registered with the Surokkha apps for the vaccine.

Visiting a vaccine centre at the Banani branch of Chittagong Grammar School in the capital, this correspondent found that hundreds of students stood in a queue for the vaccine yesterday morning.

Seeking anonymity, a student of Holy Cross Girl's School and College said, "I received an SMS to be at the centre to receive the vaccine."

She stood in front of the centre till 4:00pm and then returned without receiving any jabs. Many had waited like her amid chaos in the queue. One even fell and fainted.

Asked, Syed Md Golam Faruk, director general of Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education, said, "We received some complaints. More students rushed to the centre than the number of jabs and that could be a reason."

He also said, "We request the DGHS to increase the number of vaccines to avert such type of incidents."

The government has started inoculating students on Monday and eight vaccination centres were set up in as many schools in the capital.

Vaccines started administering from the eight centres and each centre was supposed to administer 5,000 doses a day, to inoculate 40,000 children in Dhaka a day.

On October 14, the authorities administered the Pfizer Covid vaccine to 120 students from several schools in Manikganj. None of them showed signs of side effects and after that, the government started going for mass vaccination.

Over two dozen countries have so far approved or started giving Covid shots to children below 18, according to media reports.