PM assures vaccine supply during inoculation
Prime minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday said that the first dose of the ongoing vaccination against COVID-19 would end today and the second jab would begin on April 8 as per the schedule.
Presiding over the weekly cabinet meeting virtually from her Ganabhaban residence, she said there would be no problem to continue the second dose with the present stock and the government would get the vaccine supply from India in the meantime.
‘The prime minister has asked the authorities to follow the rollout plan for the second dose of COVID-19 inoculation scheduled to begin from April 8,’ cabinet secretary Khandker Anwarul Islam told a briefing at the secretariat after the meeting.
He said that the PM had made it clear that the rollout of the first jab of the COVID-19 vaccine would conclude Tuesday and the second jab would begin as per the schedule.
According to the cabinet secretary, Sheikh Hasina once again asked all concerned to ensure mandatory use of masks and follow the government instructions after the sudden surge in the COVID-19 infections.
Members of the cabinet and secretaries to the ministries concerned joined the cabinet meeting from the secretariat.
About the government measures to enforce its 11-point instructions restricting people’s movement and business and banning all public transports effective for a week from Monday, he said that local administrations including deputy commissioners and law enforcement agencies were already instructed to strictly enforce the order to contain the second wave of the coronavirus infections.
Asked whether the period of restrictions would be extended, Anwarul said the government would review it on Thursday considering the situation.
Meanwhile, uncertainty over the COVID-19 vaccine supply to Bangladesh by Serum Institute of India has increased as the Indian manufacturer failed to supply the committed 50 lakh doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca-developed vaccine in March.
Serum has also kept Bangladesh authorities in the dark about when and how the doses of the vaccine will be sent as part of the next consignment.
Although the country has a shortage of vaccine doses, the authorities will continue its vaccination programme and will also begin the second dose administration on April 8.
The government has a purchase deal with Serum and its local vendor Beximco Pharma to get 3 crore doses of the vaccine by June, which amounts to 50 lakh a month.
So far, the Indian firm has supplied 70 lakh doses in two shipments — 50 lakh in January and 20 lakh in February — with no doses arriving in March.
India has reportedly put a temporary hold on all major exports of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine manufactured at Serum in a bid to meet the country’s local demand.
However, the Directorate General of Health Services on Sunday in a meeting decided to continue the first dose administration while simultaneously beginning the second dose inoculation.
The meeting, which was presided over by DGHS’s additional director general Meerjady Sabrina Flora, was attended by COVID-19 vaccine preparedness and deployment core committee.
The meeting decided that the second dose vaccination would start on April 8 alongside the vaccination of the first dose and the messages to second dose recipients would be sent from April 5.
The vaccines would be sent to the districts by Beximco Pharma, which is responsible for reaching the vaccines to health centres across the country maintaining the cold chain under a deal.
The meeting also decided to continue vaccination during Ramadan.
The vaccine recipients would also be allowed to use rickshaw and private transport during the restriction period.
Bangladesh began mass vaccination on February 7.
So far, 55.39 lakh people took the first dose among 69.45 lakh registered to receive the jab until Monday, according to the DGHS statistics.
News Courtesy:
https://www.newagebd.net/article/134524/pm-assures-vaccine-supply-during-inoculation
