Minimum 6 lakh people need to be jabbed daily to reopen economy: IMF

Bangladesh needs to vaccinate about 6,08,796 people every day to reach at least 40% inoculation target by the end of this year, revealed the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Tuesday.

In the latest update of its World Economic Outlook, the global lender said vaccine access has emerged as the principal fault line along which the global recovery splits into two blocs – almost all advanced economies that can look forward to further normalisation of activity later this year and those that will still contend with prospects of resurgent infections and rising Covid death tolls.

The IMF mentioned that the average daily vaccination rate needs to be 0.36% in Bangladesh to reach the 40% vaccination target.

Among South Asian countries, Afghanistan has the highest requirement of vaccinating at least 0.37% of its population a day, followed by Bangladesh and Pakistan (0.36%).

India, which has been hit hardest by Covid-19, needs to vaccinate at least 0.30% of its population daily.  However, the country has been able to maintain a daily average of 0.38%. 

Meanwhile, Bhutan, the first country to win the fight against Covid-19, has reported only two deaths so far, still needs to maintain an average rate of 0.08% daily, followed by the Maldives (0.10%) and Sri Lanka (0.33%). 

The IMF also said achieving the vaccination target by the end of 2021 will require sustaining growth in global vaccinations and ensuring their equitable distribution.

In the latest update, the IMF estimated global growth will be 6% in 2021, the same as it forecasted in the previous outlook of April.

In the April outlook, the IMF projected a 7.5% growth for Bangladesh's economy in the current fiscal year. Meanwhile, the finance ministry estimated in its Mid-Term Macroeconomic Policy Statement that the country's economy would grow by 7.2% in FY22.

Bangladesh rolled out its mass immunisation programme on 7 February this year with India-manufactured Oxford-AstraZeneca doses. The 8 am to 2 pm campaign vaccinated 1.5 to 2 lakh people a day until it faced a supply crisis in April 2021. 

The first dose reached its peak on 17 February with 2,61,945 jabs, while the second dose had been recorded to be the highest in mid-April with 2,21,616 shots. 

On Tuesday, 1.81 lakh people were vaccinated by Sinopharm doses, while 59,765 people received Moderna's first dose, meaning that total 2.41 lakh people got vaccinated on the day, while the figure was 2.17 lakh on Monday.  

The IMF staff's recent proposal to end the pandemic, endorsed by the WHO, World Bank, and WTO, sets a goal of vaccinating at least 40% of the population in every country by the end of 2021 and at least 60% by mid-2022, alongside ensuring adequate diagnostics and therapeutics. However, a full recovery of even the most advanced economies cannot be assured yet.