Special Inoculation Campaign: Twice a week at unions, upazilas
The government will soon run a "Special Inoculation Campaign" during which people even at the unions would be able to get Covid shots twice a week.
The move is apparently being made so that the government can achieve its target of administering two crore Covid shots every month.
The health assistants will run the special campaign on days of the week they do not have any regular vaccination work, decided a meeting held at the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) yesterday evening.
People aged 60 and above will be able to get registered on the spot on one of the two days.
"We have ensured continuous supply of vaccines in the coming days. In continuation of this, we have planned to administer around two crore shots of Covid-19 vaccines each month, including one crore through special campaign," Prof Abul Bashar Mohammad Khurshid Alam, director general of the health directorate, said in an online briefing after the meeting.
He did not mention when this special campaign would start.
On August 6-12, the government inoculated around 34 lakh people through special campaign in around 6,000 centres in rural and urban areas.
However, the government backtracked from its decision to continue the special campaign due to the shortage of jabs.
There are 1,005 Covid-19 vaccination centres for regular campaign across the country.
During yesterday's briefing, Prof Khurshid said schools can no longer be used as vaccination centres as classes have resumed.
"At upazila level, we have planned to use the upazila auditoriums or any large halls alongside the upazila health complexes as vaccination centres," he said.
At the union level, the union health sub-centres and the union health and family welfare centres will be used as vaccination centres.
"People willing to get vaccinated will register online at the upazila health complexes and will go to the designated vaccination centres after getting texts. The ICT division will arrange mechanism to send texts mentioning the centres' names," Prof Khurshid said.
About vaccinating children, he said, "This is a sensitive issue. We are trying to bring children under vaccination as per directives from the prime minister. We will start this campaign based on specific data in future."
Health Minister Zahid Maleque had said inoculation of children 12 and above will start in 15-20 days.
The health DG also said migrant workers will get vaccines as required by the countries they work in.
According to health officials, the DGHS has taken necessary steps to deliver Pfizer shots in 22 districts, including Dhaka.
Asked, Prof Khurshid said, "We have planned the campaign in a way so that certain people can get the certain vaccines. The migrant workers will get priority always."
43 DIED, 1,383 NEW CASES
Forty-three more people died from Covid-19 in 24 hours ending at 8:00am yesterday, said a press release issued by the DGHS.
The total number of Covid-19 deaths in the country now stands at 27,225, and the death rate at 1.76 percent.
At least 1,383 new infections were recorded during the period, taking the total number of people infected to 15,42,683, added the release.
The positivity rate was 5.62 percent against a total of 24,623 samples tested across the country in the 24 hours.
At least 2,887 Covid-19 patients have recovered during the period.
The total number of recoveries is now 15,01,541, and the recovery rate 97.33 percent.
Among the 43 deceased, 22 were men and 21 women.