Bangladesh has launched a new phase of its Covid-19 vaccination programme by administering the shots to two students from the ninth grade at Ideal School in Dhaka’s Motijheel, bdnews24.com reports.
Education Minister Dipu Moni and Health and Family Welfare Minister Zahid Maleque launched the expansion of the vaccine programme for students aged 12 to 17 on Monday.
Student Mahjabin Toma was the first to receive the Pfizer dose, followed by Tahsan Hossain from the same class. Students across the country will only be receiving the Pfizer shots for now.
In a test run on Oct 14, authorities administered the vaccine to 120 students from several schools in Manikganj. None of the recipients showed any negative effects. Following the experiment, the decision was made to expand the vaccination programme to school students.
Bangladesh launched its Covid-19 vaccination drive in February, with the minimum age for registration set at 40. Now students as young as 12 will be able to register.
Vaccines will be administered at eight centres in Dhaka from Tuesday, Health Minister Zahid Maleque said. Each centre will administer 5,000 doses a day, giving the first dose of the shot to 40,000 children in Dhaka daily.
“After that we will expand the programme to 21 districts outside Dhaka. We are also considering rolling out the vaccines at the upazila level for children. No child will be left behind.”
Nearly 30 million doses will be needed to inoculate students between the ages of 12 and 17, the health minister said. The government currently has 8 million doses, but has been promised more through the Covax international vaccine platform.
“All of you will get the vaccine,” the health minister said, addressing the students. “After receiving the shot, you can come to school. But we still have to maintain health guidelines, or else we risk another outbreak of the coronavirus.”
Education Minister Dipu Moni thanked health authorities for arranging the vaccine for school children and expressed her gratitude to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for giving the order.
“We have reopened schools, but only on a limited basis. The more children are vaccinated the more we will be able to expand our educational activities. We hope that, by the new year, we will have made significant progress on vaccination and will be able to resume regular education.”
The younger children will have to register through the Surokkha web platform for the vaccine. The date and vaccination centre will then be confirmed to them through an SMS. Vaccine recipients will have to download, print out and bring their vaccination card to the centre.
According to the DGHS, the eight vaccine centres in Dhaka have been selected with the help of the Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board.
They are – The HURDCO School in the Bashundhara Residential Area, South Point School in Malibagh, Chittagong Grammar School in Gulshan, Ideal School and College in Motijheel, Dhaka Commerce College in Mirpur, Kakoli School in Dhanmondi, South Breeze School in Uttara and Scholastica School in Mirpur.
These institutions were chosen because they have air-conditioned rooms, which are required to dilute the Pfizer vaccine, Dr Shamsul Haque said.
Each of these centres will have 25 booths. Students from those schools and other nearby institutions will be able to get their shots.
Preparations have been made to treat any children if they fall ill at Kurmitola General Hospital, the Central Police Hospital, the National Heart Foundation Hospital, Shaheed Suhrawardy Hospital and the Kuwait Bangladesh Friendship Government Hospital.