The DGHS has formed a body to investigate the alleged attempt of selling coronavirus vaccine in the open market.
A senior official at the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) on Sunday said the Dhaka district civil surgeon will head the body to probe the scandal.
Earlier in the day, Director General of the DGHS Dr Abul Bashar Mohammad Khurshid Alam disclosed the information about the probe body while talking to the reporters during a visit to the National Institute of Neuroscience and Hospital in the city.
He warned of taking tougher action if anyone of the directorate is found guilty of unauthorised selling of the Covid-19 jabs.
"Police have already started an investigation into the matter and we also launched an inquiry into the issue.
We will take strict actions against those involved in the matter," he added.
The DGHS chief's warning came just few days after the police arrested a person from a pharmacy in Dakkhinkhan area in the city with Moderna vaccines.
Earlier on August 18, police arrested one Bijoy Krishna Talukder, who claimed to be a paramedic, from a pharmacy in Dhaka's Dakkhinkhan with two vials (10 doses in each vial) of Moderna vaccine. After his detention, the law enforcers also found 21 more vials.
The government has been administering the Covid-19 vaccines for free. The authorities had received the Moderna vaccine doses under the Covax programme.
Meanwhile, DGHS Additional DG Dr Meerjady Sabrina Flora, during the same visit, said that they have asked the authorities concerned to increase the number of booths at the vaccination centres to end the backlog of people waiting for their jabs.
According to the DGHS, currently over 10 million people are still waiting to receive the vaccine after completing the registration process.
"We have already issued the directives, and the instructions were also given to ensure timely vaccination of the people who have gotten SMS confirmation or are still waiting to be vaccinated," she said.
She added that her department was not relaxing at all as the daily positivity rate is still over 16 per cent.
She said both public and private healthcare facilities have been asked to provide services to the Covid and non-Covid patients with equal importance.
Bangladesh reported 139 deaths from Covid-19 and 4,804 new virus cases during the last 24 hours until 8:00am on Sunday.
The figures were higher, compared to 120 deaths and 3,991 cases reported on Saturday, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
However, the Covid-19 test positivity rate in the country inched down further to 15.16 per cent on Sunday from the previous day's 16.71 per cent.
With the latest daily counts, the total fatalities from Covid-19 have reached 25,282 while the total caseload is nearly 1.46 million since the virus was detected first in Bangladesh in March last year.
During the last 24-hour reporting time, some 31,689 samples were tested, including antigen-based rapid tests, while 30,618 samples were collected across the country.
A total of 8,453 more people recovered from the coronavirus disease in the country during the last 24-hour reporting time, according to the DGDH data.
The rate of recovery from the coronavirus disease was reported at 93.29 per cent on the day.
However, the rate of fatalities from Covid-19 remained static at 1.73 per cent.
Meanwhile, some 272,702 and 109,662 people received the 1st and 2nd doses of Chinese Sinopharm vaccine, while the government administered 1,091 first dose and 29,931 2nd dose of Astrazeneca-Covishield jabs, 228 1st dose and 150 2nd dose of Pfizer vaccine, and 1,188 1st dose and 43,264 2nd dose of Moderna vaccine on Sunday.
With these, the government administered a total of more than 16.66 million 1st doses and over 6.57 mission 2nd doses of aforesaid vaccines until Sunday since the mass Covid-19 vaccination programme was launched in the country on February 7 last.
Meanwhile, Japanese Ambassador to Dhaka Naoki Ito said they had planned to deliver another 634,920 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine on August 28 and fulfil their commitment of over 3 million doses to Bangladesh, adds UNB report.
On Saturday, Bangladesh received the fourth batch of vaccine - 781,440 doses of AstraZeneca - which was part of 3.0 million doses that the Japanese government will provide to Bangladesh through the COVAX Facility.
Bangladesh received the first consignment of 245,200 doses, the second consignment of 781,320 doses and the third consignment of 616,780 doses, which respectively arrived on July 24, July 31 and August 3, totalling 2,424,700 doses so far.
"This is purely for the sake of the Bangladeshi people. We hope this vaccine support will contribute to the Bangladesh government's efforts to prevent the spread of Covid-19," he said.
Japan hopes that fair, equitable and comprehensive access to safe and effective vaccines will be ensured in Bangladesh.
"I would like to reiterate that Japan will stand by Bangladesh in the fight against Covid-19 and will work together to contain Covid-19 as soon as possible," said the Ambassador.
Bangladesh expressed heartfelt appreciation to the generous support from Japan noting that Japan is the best long-standing friend.
Bangladesh wants to effectively utilise the vaccines from Japan and make best efforts for the quick and extensive rollout of the vaccines for the people of Bangladesh.
