4th Covid-19 vaccine dose free for opposition MPs: Health Minister

Health Minister Zahid Maleque today said the opposition lawmakers will be provided with fourth dose of Covid-19 vaccine for free.

The minister said this in light humour during a discussion at the Jaitya Sangsad on demand for grant and cut motion of Health Services Division in FY 2021-22. 

During the discussion, the health minister elaborated about the different steps taken by the government to curb Covid-19 infections in the country and provide vaccination to mass people.

"No one wants to know how Covid-19 was brought under control. I have not even seen any appreciation for the government's success in fighting Covid-19," Zahid lamented.

BNP leaders think if they can show the health ministry as failure, then the government may be deemed as failed too, he remarked. 

"The opposition lawmakers also helped a lot. Lawmakers are requesting to provide a fourth Covid-19 vaccine dose to the opposition MPs for free. Three doses have been provided so far, fourth dose will be also provided for free," Maleque said.

Earlier in the discussion, opposition Gonoforum MP Mokabbir Khan alleged of syndicates engaged in large scale corruption in the health sector, depriving people of the necessary health services.

There is lack of good governance and liability in the health sector, he added.

"The government is interested in building out physical infrastructures since these provide them the scopes to plunder the funds while making a show out of the structures built. After all, there is not much scope to do corruption in revenue budget," said BNP lawmaker Rumeen Farhana.

"Equipment worth thousands of crores of taka were purchased for the district and upazila level hospitals in the last 13 years but those have not been used properly and are now unusable," said BNP MP Harunur Rashid.

He called for forming a parliamentary committee to look into the matter.