Govt starts giving Covid jab 4th dose

The government started administering the fourth dose (second booster) of Covid-19 vaccine on Tuesday.
Pfizer-BioNTech's Covid vaccine is being given as the fourth dose to people over 60-year-old, citizens with long-term illnesses and frontline fighters in the initial phase.
The health authorities moved for giving the fourth dose, as antibodies developed through the coronavirus vaccine do not last long, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
Ahmedul Kabir, additional director general of the DGHS, formally inaugurated the inoculation campaign at Kurmitola General Hospital in Dhaka.
Some 40 million people of the country are eligible to take the fourth dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, Mr Kabir said.
In the initial phase, people aged 60 years and above, people aged 18 years and above with long-term illnesses, people with weakened immune systems, pregnant women and lactating mothers, and people considered to be frontline fighters would get the fourth dose of the Covid vaccine, he elaborated.
People who took their third dose (first booster) at least four months back would be able to take the fourth dose, which has been administered all over the country, according to the DGHS.
The fourth dose of the Covid vaccine would be available in all the vaccination centres of city corporations, districts, upazilas and municipalities, government specialised hospitals, government medical college hospitals, 500/250/100-bed hospitals, district headquarter hospitals, and upazila health complexes, it added.
Dr Shamsul Haque, secretary general of Covid-19 Vaccine Management Taskforce Committee, said the government administered 150 million people with the first dose, 125 million with the second dose, and 65 million people with the third dose.
The DGHS still has 10.33 million vaccines. There are 115 million people over the age of 18 years, and the government would gradually give a second booster dose to everyone, he added.

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