Terming the ongoing Covid-19 vaccination programme a successful one, Health Minister Zahid Maleque on Tuesday said Bangladesh has become first in South Asia in terms of controlling the pandemic through bringing 75 per cent population under the inoculation coverage.
The minister added the government has so far brought over 290 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines from various overseas sources and more than 230 million of the doses have already been administered.
"In terms of vaccination coverage, Bangladesh stands first in South Asian and eighth among 200 countries of the world," he claimed while addressing inauguration of the Sixth International Conference on Plastic Surgery-2022 and "Mujib Corner" and "Bangabandhu Gallery".
Society of Plastic Surgeons of Bangladesh (SPSB) organised the event at the Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery (SHNIBPS).
Mr Maleque said around 98 per cent of the front-liners have been vaccinated; as a result, the number of deaths has come down to almost zero and infection rate to one per cent.
The minister added the government spent huge money in developing infrastructure in the hospitals to cope with the pressure of controlling the pandemic.
Central oxygen plants have been installed in 130 hospitals over the past two years with introduction of 867 Covid-19 testing labs across the country while 20,000 dedicated beds are ready for treating Covid patients, he said.
At the same time, the minister said they have also installed temporary field hospitals having 1,000 beds along with 400 ICU facilities.
"We've also appointed additional 10,000 doctors and 15,000 nurses during the time. So, capacity of the healthcare centres has increased significantly. Now, the doctors and nurses need to enhance quality of the services," he said.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh reported one death from Covid-19 along with 69 new cases across the country in the 24 hours till Tuesday morning.
According to the latest statistics of the health directorate, the total numbers of infections and fatalities rose to 1,951,432 and 29,120 respectively.
The latest count of infections came after screening 9,213 samples across the country and the positivity rate was 0.75 per cent.
In terms of recovery, 747 more people recovered from the disease caused by the virus and it took the total recovery figure to 1,879,544.
The latest figures have put the recovery rate at 96.32 per cent and the mortality rate at 1.49 per cent.
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