Bangladesh has suspended its nationwide vaccination drive against Covid-19 from July 20-23 due to the Eid-ul-Adha holidays.
A three-day Eid holiday will be observed from Tuesday, while Friday is a weekly holiday, Dr Md Shamsul Haque, line director at the Directorate General of Health Services, said.
“The vaccination programme will be closed for four days. Activities will resume again on Saturday.”
Bangladesh started its mass vaccination drive on February 7 but it was interrupted due to a shortage of vaccine doses. The government stopped administering the first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine after India halted exports.
Afterwards, the government started looking for other vaccine sources. It subsequently signed a deal with China for 15 million doses of Sinopharm vaccine at $10 per shot. The South Asian nation also received doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines under the COVAX global vaccine sharing initiative, reports bdnews24.com
The vaccination drive restarted at the district level from July 1 after the new doses arrived.
Meanwhile, the Directorate General of Health Services lowered the minimum age for vaccines by five years to 30 after bolstering the vaccine stocks.