An expanded mass vaccination campaign is underway across the country to inoculate 3.2 million people against COVID-19.
The programme began at more than 15,000 vaccination centres at 9 am on Saturday.
Large crowds were seen gathering at the vaccination centres to receive their first doses of the vaccine, reports bdnews24.com.
Although the campaign is supposed to run until 3 pm, the vaccination goal may be achieved earlier than that due to the high public interest, health officials said.
“Many people from villages have arrived to get vaccinated. We think that this mass immunisation programme will create a lot of excitement among the people,” Dr Shamsul Haque, member secretary of the vaccine deployment committee, told bdnews24.com.
The nationwide vaccination drive will continue in city corporation areas until Aug 9. Vaccine shots will be given at the union and municipal level on Aug 8 and 9. Doses will also be administered in remote areas on Aug 8 and 9, while members of the forcibly displaced Rohingya community over the age of 55 will be inoculated from Aug 10 to 12.
“We have started the vaccination programme today. If it isn’t possible to conduct the campaign in an area today, we shall do it tomorrow. Nobody will be left out. We will run this six-day programme all over the country,” said Shamsul Haque.
People are being given the shots only after they have registered on the spot using their voter IDs, he said.
"If we find out that there is no mobile network in a remote area or there is no opportunity for registration, we will upload the information to our Excel sheet at night. This may be done for one or two areas. It is happening in Monpura.”
The government is planning to provide free vaccine shots to 140 million people to curtail the pandemic and prevent deaths.