Students aged 12 yrs and above to be vaccinated: PM
The Prime Minister said the government has a plan to vaccinate 80 percent of the country's population
The government plans to gradually bring students aged 12 and above under the Covid vaccination coverage, said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in parliament on Wednesday.
There is a plan to vaccinate 80% of the country's population. By the end of this year, the government has a target of immunising half the population, as per guidelines of the World Health Organisation, the PM told the House.
Physically-challenged people will also be brought under the vaccination programme by the Ministry of Social Welfare. And workers will get vaccine shots on a priority basis.
Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel
The PM said 4,44,31,880 doses have been collected through bilateral agreements. Steps have been taken to bring in one crore or more doses of vaccines every month.
Sheikh Hasina said about six crore vaccine jabs -- two crore every month – will arrive from China's Sinopharm from October to December.
It will be possible to overcome the pandemic with cooperation from all governments, she said.
"The situation will become normal again if everybody follows health guidelines strictly after being vaccinated."
Bangladesh to receive 24cr vaccine doses by next March: Momen
Bangladesh will get 24 crore doses of Covid vaccines by March-April of next year, Foreign Minister Dr A K Abdul Momen said.
Some of them are purchased and some will be received under the Covax facility, the minister said at the inauguration of the International Conference on Inclusive Business, organised by Dutch-Bangla Chamber of Commerce & Industry at a city hotel on Wednesday.
"We have vaccinated more than 2.3 crore people. About 26 to 27 % of the eligible population have been vaccinated already," the foreign minister added.
On Bangladesh being on the red list regarding travel to the United Kingdom, Momen said the British government thought the vaccination rate in Bangladesh was low, but 135 other countries are not even close to where Bangladesh is regarding Covid vaccination campaigns.
Travellers from Bangladesh have to stay in quarantine at their own expense upon arrival in the UK since the country is red listed.
"India is not red-listed though the number of deaths and infections is higher there than in Bangladesh" Momen said.
On Wednesday, India's positivity rate was 1.69% among more than 16 lakh people tested for Covid-19 and the number of deaths was 284, according to data from the health and welfare ministry of India.
"They [the UK] say we have found African variants here. But no African variant was found in our country. The health department did not say anything about this. But they need to speak," Momen said.
Bangladesh to produce Covid vaccines soon: Health ministry
"The prime minister instructed us to make Covid vaccines as quickly as possible. We are working towards that goal," said Health Minister Zahid Maleque in parliament.
The authorities are assured of 6 crore doses from China and 5 crore doses from Covax, the global initiative to ensure equal access to vaccines. In total, the country expects to receive 16 crore more doses.
Until Tuesday, more than 2.13 crore people received only the first dose of any of the double-dose vaccines while another 1.41 crore people have become fully vaccinated.
