Sinopharm Jabs: Nationwide vaccination resumes today

The administration of the Sinopharm vaccine begins today in all district hospitals and 40 centres across the capital, health officials said.

It comes after the government on June 19 launched a trial vaccination on medical students with the Chinese vaccine.

At a virtual briefing yesterday, Dr Shamsul Haque, line director of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), said those waiting to be jabbed after registration would get the shots across the country.

Students of medical colleges and universities will also be vaccinated upon their registration, he said.

Health officials said the government has around 11 lakh Sinopharm vaccines, gifted by the Chinese government, in hand. Another 20 lakh doses of the vaccine were ready to be delivered from China.

Meantime, migrant workers heading abroad will get the Pfizer vaccines at seven centres in the capital from today. The vaccination will be done based on lists of workers provided by the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET), said the health officials.

The centres are at Dhaka Medical College Hospital, Sir Salimullah Medical College Hospital, Mugda Medical College Hospital, Shaheed Shuhrawardy Medical College Hospital, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, Kurmitola General Hospital and Sheikh Russel National Gastroliver Institute & Hospital.

Prof Shamshul said students would also be able to register for the vaccination of the Sinopharm jabs as per lists of the University Grants Commission (UGC).

"No one will get the vaccine without registration and confirmation messages. The online registration has resumed," he said.

He also said the vaccine recipients would be able go to the vaccination centres amid the ongoing nationwide strict Covid-19 lockdown, beginning today.

TWO MILLION SINOPHARM VACCINES READY

Two million shots of Sinopharm vaccines in Beijing are ready to be delivered to Bangladesh, said Chinese government officials.

Hualong Yan, deputy chief of mission at the Chinese Embassy in Dhaka, wrote in his Facebook post that the first batch of Sinopharm vaccines, under Bangladesh's commercial purchase, was ready for delivery.

Health ministry officials earlier said Bangladesh would have to make arrangements to transport the doses from China.

Besides, Bangladesh will get 2.5 million jabs of Moderna vaccine by July 3 under the Covax facility.

In yesterday's briefing, Dr Shamsul also said, "We expect to get many more vaccines in July."

The country has so far inoculated less than three percent of its population. Its vaccination campaign, which started on February 7, stumbled due to suspension of vaccine supplies by the Serum Institute of India amid a surge in daily new cases and deaths there.

Bangladesh and Serum had an agreement that the latter would ship three crore shots of the Oxford vaccine in phases to Bangladesh between January and June.

Serum delivered the first 50 lakh doses in January, but shipped only 20 lakh the following month. No shipment has been made since. Besides, India sent 3.3 million doses as a gift to Bangladesh.

Amid a fast depleting vaccine stock, Bangladesh suspended administering the first dose of the vaccine on April 26. Registering people for vaccination was suspended nine days later.