Covid-19 booster dose uncertain after July 19 campaign

Giving booster doses after the July 19 special campaign would depend on availability of vaccines, said Dr Shamsul Haque, member secretary of the Covid-19 Vaccine Deployment Committee of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).

"We currently have more than one crore Pfizer vaccines for booster doses. During the campaign, we want to inoculate 75 lakh people," he informed.

"We have other vaccines but they cannot be used as boosters. Comorbid and elderly patients, who have not received booster doses, are now at an increased risk from the infection. So those who have not yet taken booster doses should take them," said Dr Shamsul.

Administering booster doses across the country started on 19 December 2021.

At that time, booster doses of Pfizer, Moderna and Oxford-Astrazeneca vaccines were given.

Now only the Pfizer vaccine is given as booster doses, said Dr Shamsul.

Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines are no longer available, he added.

Sinovac and Sinopharm vaccines are now being administered as the first and the second doses in the country.

Meanwhile, the Chattogram health department has set a target of giving booster doses to 3.68 lakh people in the district on Tuesday.

Dr Mohammad Ilyas Chowdhury, the Chattogram civil surgeon, told The Business Standard that previous experience showed that the plan to vaccinate a large number of people in one day was much more effective.

"We have targeted every union. Community clinics have been set up as vaccination centres. Where there are no community clinics, EPI programme sites will be used as vaccination centres," he further said.

On 19 July, Covid-19 Vaccination Day, the campaign will start from 9:00 am across the country.

People aged 18 years and above, who took the second dose of Covid-19 vaccines four months ago, are eligible to get the booster doses.

Booster doses can be obtained from the nearest vaccination centre or any Covid-19 vaccination centre with proof of validity for vaccination (Covid-19 vaccine certificates).

The DGHS said the regular programme of giving the first and the second dose will continue on the booster dose campaign day.

Earlier, from 4 June to 10 June, a weeklong booster dose vaccination campaign was conducted.

A total of 12.95 crore people have been administered the first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine till Thursday while 11.98 crores received the second dose across the country during the period, according to the DGHS.

As many as 3.24 corer people have received the booster dose of the vaccine.

Five deaths, 1,007 new cases from Covid-19 in 24hrs

Bangladesh registered five deaths and 1,007 new cases from Covid-19 in the last 24 hours till 8:00 am Saturday.

The positivity rate was recorded at 13.70% during the same period after testing 7,351 samples across the country.

So far 29,230 people have died and 19,95,440 tested positive for the virus in Bangladesh since 2020.