Govt ensuring over 1 crore Covid-19 vaccines every month: PM

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today told the parliament that the government has made arrangements to ensure over one crore doses of Covid-19 vaccine every month.

She said this in response to a query from Awami League MP Shahiduzzaman Sarker.

Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chowdhury presided over the 14th session of the 11th Jatiya Sangsad, which began at around 5:00pm.

In the scripted answer, PM said, "Steps have been taken to ensure more than one crore vaccines every month."

Sheikh Hasina said that according to the schedule received from Sinopharm, from October onwards, two crores vaccines will be available every month and 6 crore vaccines will be available by December.

She said so far (August 30), first dose of Covid-19 vaccine was administered to 1,82,89,018 people and 78,40,169 people have received both doses.

The premier said with the first and second doses, a total of 2,61,29,187 doses of Covid-19 vaccine were administered.

Sheikh Hasina said the stock of Covid-19 vaccine in the country at the moment is 1,18,96,343 doses.

"Vaccines are being collected, while they're being administered to people of the country for free," she said.

The Prime Minister said that the government has established communication with all vaccine producing organisations.

"Of them we got response from India's Serum Institute and booked three crore doses of vaccine with advance payment," she said.

She also mentioned that there was no response from other vaccine producing companies.

"Later, Sinopharm and Sputnik V responded… We took initiative as soon as we got their response; we have inked agreement with Sinopharm and also signed MoU for local production," she said.

Responding to a question from Shameem Haider Patwari from Jatiya Party, Hasina informed the House that every year, about 6,000 hectares of land is lost due to river erosion. As a result, about 50,000 people became homeless, she said.

The PM said that the government has taken initiatives for permanent solution to river erosion.

She said that Delta Plan 2100 has been undertaken for overall river management, water supply in urban and rural areas, waste management and flood control apart of protection from flood, controlling river erosion, river training and maintaining navigability.

She mentioned that in this plan the whole country has been divided into seven river basins and survey is going on.

The surveys on Karnaphuli, Sangu and Matamuhiri rivers have been completed.

Replying to Mahfuzur Rahman, the Prime Minister said that in the last four years it was possible to meet the demands for sacrificial animals through domestic production due to various steps of the government.

She said that during the last Eid-ul-Azha, the number of available animals was around 1,19,16,700 while the number of sacrificed animals was 90,93,242.

She also mentioned that in the last 12 years, milk production increased five times while egg production, four times.