Tk 40,000cr spent on buying, administering 22cr vaccine doses: Health Minister

The government has spent Tk 40,000 crore to buy 22 crore Covid-19 vaccine doses and for administering them, Health Minister Zahid Maleque said today.

"We have so far administered around 22 crore doses [of Covid-19 vaccines] … no major irregularities were seen while implementing such a huge campaign," he said.

He said this while addressing a discussion marking World Kidney Day 2022 at the National Institute of Kidney Disease and Urology in Dhaka.

The minister also said that Bloomberg has ranked Bangladesh in the eighth position among all countries "for administering 22 crore vaccine jabs" within the shortest time, and the country is now known as a role model in the world in dealing with the virus.

"We administered 1.20 crore doses in a single day, which is a record. We have been able to vaccinate around 22 crore shots so far. Of these, 12.5 crore vaccines were first doses, 8.5 crore were second doses, and 50 lakh were booster doses," he said.

Several lakh people worked for the vaccination programme, he added.

The economy of Bangladesh is now reviving while many others are struggling, he also said.

He added that many more people will be brought under vaccination of booster doses soon. "This will keep the country (people) safer," he said.

About the kidney disease situation in the country, the minister said that as many as 70-80 people have been dying from kidney diseases while around 20,000-30,000 people develop kidney disease every day.

"For this, we have taken up projects to set up a 10-bed dialysis centre and 10-bed ICU in each district separately. Besides, there will be a cancer and kidney hospital in each of the eight divisions," he added.

Presided over by Dr Mizanur Rahman, director of the NIKDU, Saiful Islam, secretary of the medical education division, and Prof ABM Khurshid Alam, director general of the health directorate, spoke at the event, among others.