Low-income group missing vaccine

People from low-income groups and the backward sections of society are missing the COVID-19 vaccination as the country passed eight days of nationwide vaccination on Monday.

So far 11.32 lakh people were vaccinated, including 2.26 lakh on Monday, but officials involved said that people from the affluent communities and other socially advanced groups like the educated middle class having access to the internet mostly constitute the vaccine recipients so far.

‘The trend shows that the low-income people and other backward groups of people are not getting the jab,’ said Directorate General of Health Services spokesperson Mizanur Rahman.

‘Such people are not registering themselves for vaccination as either they have less access to the internet or they are not interested to get the vaccine,’ he said.

The vaccine seekers are asked to register through the internet based Surokkha website www.surokkha.gov.bd, which experts said is an obstacle for common people who are not internet savvy.

For lay people, checking mobile phone messages and perceiving the vaccine schedule also pose a problem, they said.

‘The registration system itself is creating the division,’ said noted virologist Nazrul Islam, also a former vice-chancellor of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University.

‘The traditional vaccination programme under the Expanded Programme of Immunisation is a success in Bangladesh as people in general are not against the vaccines, but COVID-19 vaccine recipients have so far been part of the affluent and advanced group of people of our society due to the technology involved in its registration and the misinformation that are in circulation about the COVID-19 vaccine,’ he said.

The vaccination centres in the capital hardly witnessed any members belonging to low-income families, especially people from the slum areas.

Talking to New Age, an auto-rickshaw driver in the capital said that he was a diabetic patient and was willing to get the vaccine, but he was afraid that he would not get the vaccine.

‘I heard that I have to register myself to get the vaccine, but I cannot do that. I am not familiar with the internet and I am also not much educated,’ he said.

A roadside vegetable vendor, who lives in the Moghbazar railway slum, said that he did not take any decision about the vaccine as he believed that COVID-19 did not infect the poor.

He said that he might have taken the vaccine if anyone helped him to get himself registered for the vaccine.

The DGHS does not have any segregated database of COVID-19 vaccine recipients, based on their social or economic status, but officials said they understood that the low-come group of people and the marginalised section of society like women, people from rural areas, ethnic minorities, day-labourers, self-employed people as well as the slum dwellers are not getting the vaccine.

The DGHS data showed that among the 11,32,711 vaccine recipients, 1,47,502 were from the capital.

Over 3 lakh vaccine recipients were from Dhaka division, 2.70 lakh from Chattogram division, 1.28 lakh from Khulna division, 1.28 lakh from Rajshahi division, 51,000 from Barishal division, 93,000 from Sylhet division, 1 lakh from Rangpur division and 50,000 were from Mymensingh division.

Mizanur of the DGHS said that they would review their plan of vaccination to increase the turnout in rural areas.

‘We are trying to raise awareness about the benefit of the vaccine among the mass people, especially in rural areas so that they take the vaccine,’ he added.

Bangladesh plans to inoculate 35 lakh people in the first month of the vaccination programme.

The country began its nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive 336 days after it reported its first three coronavirus cases on March 8, 2020.

The country has so far obtained 70 lakh doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.

It would obtain 1,31,000 more doses of the vaccine by the end of February under the World Health Organisation’s COVAX programme.

Besides, the second consignment of another 20-30 lakh doses of the same vaccine, bought from the Serum Institute of India through its local distributor Beximco Pharma, will arrive in the country on February 22, said Beximco managing director Nazmul Hasan on Monday.

‘We hope to get 20-30 lakh doses on February 22,’ he said while talking to journalists at Kurmitola General Hospital.

Bangladesh has bought three crore doses of the vaccine from the Serum.

The government campaign plans to inoculate 80 per cent of the country’s population against COVID-19.

The vaccination is being held at 1,015 hospitals across the country, including 50 in the capital. People are vaccinated at the government health facilities in upazilas and the district headquarters throughout the country.

The vaccination programme runs from 8:00am to 2:30pm every day at the immunisation centres.

A team of 204 health workers in Dhaka and 2,196 outside Dhaka are engaged in inoculating the people.

A total of 7,344 teams have been formed with health workers and volunteers to carry out the uninterrupted vaccination programme throughout the country.

DGHS director general ABM Khurshid Alam said on Monday that they changed their plan of providing the second dose of vaccine, increasing the gap between the two doses from four weeks to eight weeks.

Talking to journalists at his office on Monday, he said that the decision was made based on the technical committee’s opinion and World Health Organisation recommendation.

Bangladesh has beat the initial fears of the novel coronavirus raging through the nation as 8,285 people have so far died of COVID-19 with 5.41 lakh having infected the virus.

News Courtesy:

https://www.newagebd.net/article/130291/low-income-group-missing-vaccine