2 lakh yet to get vaccination certificates in Chattogram
The district civil surgeon says the delay is due to a lack of manpower
Mohammad Hanif, 45, is a Bangladeshi expatriate, who came home from Saudi Arabia on vacation six months ago. During the mass vaccination drive in the country, he got both doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca's Covishield vaccine.
It has been two months since he was vaccinated, but he is yet to get his vaccination certificate.
He said people could initially return to Saudi Arabia showing only the paper given at the time of vaccination that confirmed they had been vaccinated.
Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel
"But since 1 June, one has to show a vaccination certificate to enter Saudi Arabia, a proper certificate with QR code."
He says he has been trying to download his vaccination certificate from the Shurokkha app for the last two months with no success.
Hanif is not alone in his plight. There are nearly two lakh people in Chattogram who have not got their vaccination certificates. Journalist Mohammad Ilias is one such person.
He received his first dose on 5 April and the second one on 7 June, and he has been trying to get his vaccination certificate from the app for a month now.
"I am scheduled to leave the country in September to take part in an international training program but without the vaccination certificate, I might not be given a visa," he said.
At the outset of the mass vaccination drive in Bangladesh, Shamsul Haque Mridha, member secretary of the National Covid-19 Vaccination Plan, said those who got both doses of the vaccine would be able to download their certificate from the department of health's website in a few weeks.
So far, some 3.16 lakh people have received both doses of the vaccine in Chattogram but not even one lakh of them has received a proper certificate.
Sheikh Fazle Rabbi, the district civil surgeon, says the delay is due to insufficient manpower.
"About eight lakh vaccines have been provided in Chattogram so far but only one person is engaged in the data entry process," Rabbi said.
He added that every day information on some 200 to 300 people is being registered and server issues are also responsible for the delay.
Civil surgeon Rabbi said his office has already recruited some volunteers to speed up the data entry process.
