Covid vaccine booster dose campaign launches in Dhaka on a limited scale
A campaign for administering booster doses of the Covid-19 vaccine 'on a limited scale' was launched in Dhaka on Tuesday.
On the first day, around 120 people were vaccinated at Kurmitola General Hospital from 10:00am till 3:00pm.
Other hospitals running the campaign are: Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU), Dhaka Medical College and Hospital (DMCH), Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery, 250-bed TB Hospital in Shyamoli, Kuwait Bangladesh Friendship Hospital, and Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College and Hospital.
Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel
A definitive number for booster dose recipients could not be known, as no official concerned at the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) could be reached.
Earlier in the morning, Dr Shamsul Haque, member secretary of the National Covid-19 Vaccine Deployment Programme told media that those who have received two doses of any Covid-19 jab will eventually get an SMS to receive the booster dose. "We have sent directivess to all hospitals to start administering Covid-19 booster shots," he said.
Only those who have received two shots of any of the five Covid vaccines, among frontline workers or people 60 years old and above, will get a Pfizer, Moderna, or AstraZeneca shot as a booster dose, according to a circular from the DGHS, signed by Dr Shamsul Haque, dated 26 December, 2021.
The five vaccines which have so far been used in the countrywide campaign are: AstraZeneca, Moderna, Pfizer, Sinopharm, and Sinovac.
Dr Shamsul said a few hospitals have started administering booster doses, while other hospitals in the country will begin soon.
On December 19, the government introduced booster doses on a trial basis by administering the Pfizer vaccine to 17 frontline workers and senior citizens.
Bangladesh reported one more death from Covid-19 in the last 24 hours till 8am Tuesday. 397 new cases, up from 373 a day ago, were reported during the same period.
The current positivity rate was recorded at 2.10%, testing 18,938 samples across the country.
With the latest additions, the total national death toll reached 28,062 and the case tally increased to 15,84,023 in the country.
Bangladesh reports fourth omicron case
Bangladesh detected a fourth case of the Omicron coronavirus variant on Tuesday, a day after a man was infected with the new variant.
The data was released from Germany on Tuesday in the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data (GISAID), an international database organisation for the virus.
According to GISAID, the newly Omicron infected person is a woman who is 33 years old and resides in Dhaka.
The International Centre for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b) collected the woman's sample on 20 December and sent the data to GISAID.
