Walk-in 2nd dose vaccination on 7-12 Sept

Bangladesh will resume the nationwide walk-in vaccination campaign against Covid-19 on 7 September and continue till 12 September, offering a second dose to anyone who received the first one during a similar drive held earlier in August.

"People will be able to take the second jab at the same centre where they took the first one. No SMS confirmation is required," Director General of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) Professor Dr ABM Khurshid Alam told the Business Standard on Wednesday.

Earlier in the day, while addressing an event in Dhaka held to distribute ventilators gifted by migrant Bangladeshis, Dr Alam said, "Bangladesh will receive 50 lakh doses of the Sinopharm vaccine on 30 August. Besides, we still have around 35 lakh of the vaccine in our stock.

"We will finish providing the second dose with these vaccines. We are optimistic about ensuring 2nd dose vaccination to those who already took the first jab."

Between 7 and 12 August, Bangladesh provided the first jab to 50.73 lakh citizens across the country. People from the rural level received Sinopharm, while those at the divisional district level received Moderna shots.

"Alongside the people who got registered before, many received their jabs by showing their NIDs or birth registration certificates."

Dr Alam continued, "We are terming the drive as Campaign Vaccination, and we had launched it experimentally to verify our capacity in this regard. We had made a serious effort to make that drive successful. Aside from a few isolated incidents, we succeeded in our goal.

Bangladesh has so far received 562 portable ICU ventilators in two shipments. Gifted by migrant Bangladeshis, the latest shipment was received by the prime minister's personal physician ABM Abdullah at the Dhaka airport.

Speaking to reporters, ABM Abdullah said, "Four doctors living in the USA – Nephrologist Dr Ziauddin Ahmed Sadek, Cardiologist Prof Dr Masudul Hassan, Former United Nations senior official Mahmud us Shams Chowdhury and Cardiologist Dr Chowdhury Hafiz Ahsan, and one living in Canada – Dr Arifur Rahman, supervised the delivery of the medical equipment."

The DGHS has taken the responsibility of distributing 300 of the 562 ventilators.

Daily covid positivity rate drops below 15%

The daily Covid-19 positivity rate in Bangladesh has come down below 15% after 71 days. The country carried out 33,460 tests in the last 24 hours till Wednesday 8am, and recorded a 14.76% positivity rate. This rate was 14.27% on 15 June. 

During the third Covid-19 wave in Bangladesh, the country recorded the highest positivity rate of 32.55% on July 24. 

Covid-19 claimed 114 more lives in the 24-hour period, while another 4,966 people were found infected. The toll is the lowest in 54 days as 115 deaths were recorded on 30 June.

According to the DGHS, the country recorded 4,966 fresh cases on Wednesday, a drop from 5,249 new cases registered on Tuesday. The deadly virus has killed 25,627 people since the outbreak hit Bangladesh last year. It has also infected 14,77,930 people till date.