Jabs for Schoolchildren: Govt plans to expand it to 6 cities, 14 dists

The government is planning to expand the vaccination programme for schoolchildren aged between 12 and 17 to six more divisional cities and 14 districts.

The six divisional cities are Chattogram, Rajshahi, Barishal, Sylhet, Rangpur and Mymensingh, and the 14 districts are Jhalakathi, Bhola, Cumilla, Noakhali, Chandpur, Laxmipur, Narsingdi, Gazipur, Narayanganj, Tangail, Jashore, Satkhira, Habiganj and Sunamganj, said top officials of the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education (DSHE).

On Monday, the government launched the campaign for schoolchildren in Dhaka city. Then it was expanded to Manikganj and Kishoreganj the next day.

"We have planned to expand the vaccination programme for schoolchildren across the country. And we already have started it in several districts and will increase the number of districts soon," Prof Shahedul Khabir Chowdhury, DSHE director (administration), told The Daily Star yesterday.

Prof Shahedul said on the first day, around 2,000 students were vaccinated, around 16,000 on the second day and around 18,000 on the third day (yesterday).

Speaking at the inauguration of the campaign, Health Minister Zahid Maleque on Monday said the government would expand the student vaccination programme to 21 other districts.

"We are also considering rolling out the campaign to all districts and, if possible, to the upazila level. No child will be left out."

SMOOTH VACCINATION

Visiting two vaccination centres yesterday, this correspondent found that schoolchildren were getting the jabs smoothly. Some of the guardians called for setting up more booths at the centres so that their children do not need to wait in lines for long.

On Scholastica school and Dhaka Commerce College campuses in Mirpur, schoolchildren were seen entering their campuses and lining up in front of the  vaccine booths.

The Scholastica school authorities could maintain social distancing properly, but that of Dhaka Commerce College sometime failed to do so.

The authorities of the two educational institutions said 2,000 students of different schools yesterday received vaccines from each centre.

Farah S Ahmed, principal of Scholastica school's Uttara branch, who was present at the Mirpur branch yesterday, said there are 11 booths at the Mirpur branch, while Prof Abu Masud, principal of Dhaka Commerce College, said 10 booths have been set up at the college centre.

However, the authorities of both educational institutions said they have the capacity to set up 25 booths each.

Nurul Haque, guardian of a student at Mirpur Bangla High School, said the government earlier said there would be 25 booths at each centre for vaccinations.

"If they can set up 25 booths in place of 10-11, the vaccination programme will be smoother and students will not need to stand in queues."

Before starting the vaccination programme, Shamsul Haque, director of the Directorate General of Health Services, said 25 booths would be set up in each centre and there would be eight vaccination centres, one in each of the eight educational institutions, for students in Dhaka.

These eight centres altogether were supposed to inoculate 40,000 children in Dhaka a day, meaning each school was supposed to administer at least 5,000 doses a day.

"We will increase the number of booths gradually. We are going slow so that no chaos can take place. This is a matter of vaccinating the children," Dhaka Civil Surgeon Abu Hussain Md Moinul Ahsan told this newspaper yesterday.