The government of Bangladesh will start nationwide vaccination programme on 7 February, Health Minister Zahid Maleque said Tuesday.
A dry-run of Covid vaccine was carried out at Kurmitola General Hospital in the capital in the afternoon.
After visiting the vaccination centre at the hospital, Zahid Maleque said, “We have observed over-all situation in the hospital.”
Runu Beronica Costa, a senior staff nurse of Kurmitola Hospital, is going to be the first Covid-19 vaccine receiver in Bangladesh on Wednesday.
Followed by Nurse Runu, two other senior staff nurses Munni Khatun and Rina Sarkar, have been listed as vaccines receivers, according to doctors and nurses at Kurmitola General Hospital.
The Covid-19 vaccines will be given first to 25 front liners at the hospital at the same time.
Later 500-600 more people will be vaccinated at Dhaka Medical College Hospital, Kurmitola General Hospital, Mugda General Hospital and Kuwait-Bangladesh Friendship Hospital the next day.
Some 20 lakh (2.0 million) doses of the vaccine, manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, initially arrived in Dhaka as a gift from Indian government and later a consignment of 50 lakh doses reached here as a part of purchased 30 million doses of the vaccine.
The doses will be given to 15 million people – 9% of the population.
