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Pilot vaccination launch today

Kurmitola Hospital nurse to get first jab


FE REPORT | January 27, 2021 00:00:00


A nurse at Kurmitola General Hospital receiving a dummy vaccine during the dry run on Tuesday on the eve of the start of Covid-19 pilot vaccination programme today — FE photo by KAZ Sumon

Bangladesh is all set to launch pilot Covid-19 vaccination from today (Wednesday) inoculating frontline healthcare workers in the capital's five public hospitals, officials said on Tuesday.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is expected to virtually inaugurate the piloting at Kurmitola General Hospital, according to them.

Ranu Beronica Costa, a senior staff nurse of Kurmitola Hospital, will be the first Bangladeshi citizen to receive the Oxford-AstraZeneca's Covishield, manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII), they said.

Following Costa's jab, two other senior staff nurses Munni Khatun and Rina Sarkar will be taking the shots, 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.

After the inauguration, about 600 healthcare professionals will be inoculated at Dhaka Medical College and Hospital (DMCH), Kurmitola General Hospital, Mugda Medical College Hospital, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) and Kuwait-Bangladesh Friendship Government Hospital.

With the trial jab, the country of around 170 million population will join the rank of a few countries, which have allowed vaccines to fight the deadly virus that killed 8,055 Bangladeshis and infected 532,916 others as of January 26, 2021.

Health minister Zahid Maleque said all preparations were completed for the pilot programme.

He said a senior staff nurse of Kurmitola hospital is going to be the first vaccine recipient in Bangladesh.

Mr Maleque said the Prime Minister will inaugurate the pilot  vaccination virtually at Kurmitola General Hospital along with launching vaccination app, Surokkha, and also the website (www.surokkha.gov.bd) through which people can register themselves for shots.

The minister said they would observe the initial vaccine recipients for a week before launching the nationwide mass vaccination.

"Our planning is to roll out the vaccination across the country from February 07," he said, adding that the online registration platform will be open soon after the inauguration.

Those who will not be able to get registered online, they can register themselves visiting the vaccination centres, the minister said.

"We have such arrangements and our teams are working in districts and upazilas," he added.

The state-controlled Directorate General of Drug Administration (DGDA) has approved the application of the vaccine, originally developed by Oxford University and British-Swedish Swiss drug giant AstraZeneca, as it found no problem.

The drug regulatory issued the 'Lot Release Certificate' for the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine manufactured by Serum Institute of India, which was imported into Bangladesh by Beximco Pharmaceuticals Ltd.

"With the issuance of the certificate, there will be no legal restrictions on the use of vaccines," said Md Mahbubur Rahman, the administration's director general.

According to DGDA officials, the certification is mandatory for the use of produced or imported vaccines of each lot while it is usually not mandatory for other medicines.

Dr Shamsul Haque, line director of the Expanded Programme for Immunisation (EPI) of the DGHS, said they will first apply the vaccine to the health workers and volunteers, who will implement the vaccination programme.

"They will be monitored for a week before starting the countrywide inoculation. Hopefully, we will start the nationwide vaccination from the first week of February," he said.

Mr Hoque said the registered shot aspirants will get a vaccine card online and be notified about the date and place for the vaccine where the card must be produced.

After finishing necessary formalities, Beximco Pharmaceuticals will supply the imported vaccines to the dedicated points of district headquarters in accordance with the directorate's list, he said.

From the districts, they would take the antidotes to the upazila level points on their own to start the inoculation, according to the EPI chief.

The DGHS officials said upazila health complexes, union parishads, district/sadar hospitals, public and private medical college and hospitals, specialised hospitals, chest disease hospital and police, BGB and military hospitals, including CMH, will be used as the vaccination points.

It also said a total of 7,344 teams will be working on implementing the inoculation programme. Each team will have six members, including two nurses who will inject the dose.

The government has already received the first consignment (5.0 million doses) of the 30 million deal from India's Serum Institute. The remaining shots will be arriving in the next five months, according to the contract.

The AstraZeneca doses will be applied to some 15 million people, which is around 9.0 per cent of the country's total population.

On Sunday, Bangladesh received 2.0 million doses of Serum vaccine as a gift from the Indian government.

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