Bangladesh accelerates vaccination drive; aims to administer 120 mn doses by Jan 2022

Amid the increasing cases of COVID-19, Bangladesh is accelerating the immunisation drive across the country. According to a Xinhua report, Bangladesh has administered 70 million doses, and the numbers would cross the 120 million mark by January 2022 if the country follows the same vaccination rate, said Bangladesh's health minister, Zahid Maleque, on Sunday. Recently, neighbouring Bangladesh has purchased a total of 210 million doses of the COVID vaccines, and there is no shortage of supply in the country, informed the health Minister.

As per Bangladesh's Health Ministry, over 30 million COVID vaccine doses are scheduled to arrive in Bangladesh by the last week of this month. Whereas another 30 million doses will arrive in December this year. The vaccination drive in Bangladesh is running at a high pace due to external support. The capital Dhaka and other major cities of Bangladesh are currently administering the COVID vaccines to a large population every day. It is necessary to mention that due to support extended by India and neighbouring China, Bangladesh can carry out mass vaccination campaigns across the country.

To curtail the spread of COVID-19, Bangladesh launched the vaccination drive in January this year. But the vaccination drive slowed down as the government ordered to stop administering the first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine after India suddenly banned the export of the vaccine. In June, the vaccination drive resumed after China extended support and donated Sinopharm vaccines. Earlier, India had gifted 1.2 million vaccine doses to Bangladesh along with several ambulances and various other medical equipment.

COVID-19 situation in Bangladesh

The country has reported 178 new COVID cases in 24 hours, followed by four deaths, taking the death toll to 27,895, and the death rate stands at 1.78 percent. So far, the country has recorded a total of 15,71,013 COVID cases and the current positivity rate is 1.17 percent, while the total positivity rate is 15 percent. The total number of recoveries have now tallied to 15,34,825 and the recovery rate of the country stood at 97.70 percent. Meanwhile, the vaccination drive is going on at full throttle in the country.

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