The government is likely to start piloting the Covid-19 vaccination from next week with the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines obtained from the Indian government, doses of which are expected to arrive in Dhaka tomorrow. The launch date of piloting the vaccination will be finalised upon the prime minister's consent, Health Minister Zahid Maleque told The Daily Star yesterday, adding
Govt prepares storages for keeping corona vaccine
The government has made arrangements to keep coroanvirus vaccine as a consignment of two million of the Oxfrod-Astrazeneca vaccine will arrive on Thursday as gift from the Indian government.
At the same time, the government also is preparing storages to keep more five million Covishield vaccine purchased from Serum Institute of India which may arrive in the country by January 26.
Prof Dr ABM Khurshid Alam, director general of Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) on Tuesday said the government has prepared three alternative storages for keeping the vaccines.
“EPI’s headquarters, EPI repository at Tejgaon and Cental Medical Store Dept (CMSD) have been prepared to store the vaccines,” he said.
Officials said they have trained the vaccinators and procured syringes and safety boxes necessary for the programme.
Officials of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) said Dhaka city dwellers will be vaccinated at between 320 and 330 points. But inoculation will not begin at every vaccination point on the same day. It will start gradually, a senior official involved with the plans told The Daily Star yesterday.
There will be vaccination points at four government medical college hospitals, 30 private medical college hospitals, and around 20 specialised hospitals and institutes.
Outside the capital, people will be inoculated at government hospitals and specialised hospitals.
India will launch its most ambitious and the world’s largest Covid-19 vaccination drive on Saturday. Inoculating the country’s vast and distributed population is a big challenge but India’s past experience in mass vaccination will come in handy here.
The current Covid-19 vaccination drive also leans heavily on processes, manpower, database and experience of the Universal Immunisation Programme that vaccinated over 27 million pregnant women and 25 million infants every year.
Much before modern vaccine interventions were developed in the West and brought to India by the British, this important and cost-effective public health intervention tool was well known to Indians. Ancient literary evidence suggests smallpox inoculation was practised in India and a few other countries as early as 1000 AD, writes Dr Chandrakant Lahariya, a leading health system expert, in an article published in the Indian Journal of Medical Research.
First shipment of vaccine to arrive on Jan 25-26
Govt may allow pvt companies to import, distribute vaccines Staff Correspondent Staff Correspondent
The first consignment of Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid vaccine, produced by Serum Institute of India, will arrive in the country on January 25 or 26, Health Minister Zahid Maleque said yesterday.
He also said the government is likely to allow private companies to import and distribute Covid vaccines.
The minister was talking to journalists at his Secretariat office after a meeting with the cabinet secretary-led committee on vaccination campaign. We have been informed by Beximco Pharmaceuticals Ltd that the first consignment of vaccine will arrive in the country on January 25 or 26. We have made arrangements to transport those…