Bangladesh is set to roll out the Covid-19 immunisation across the country in early February, ending speculations over the availability of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.
The state-run Directorate General of Health Service (DGHS) took the decision as the first consignment of the antidote developed by Oxford University is likely to reach between January 21 and January 25.
Disclosing the information at a press briefing at its new Mohakhali office on Monday, Director General of the DGHS Prof. Dr. Abul Bashar Mohammad Khurshid Alam said they would open the online registration of vaccine recipients from January 26, 2021.
"Beximco has told us it is likely to bring the first consignment of the doses in the country from India's Serum Institute between January 21 and 25," he said.
After bringing the first batch of 5.0 million doses, the leading drug maker will keep those in its warehouse for two days to complete the required formalities and then will supply those to the dedicated points of district headquarters in accordance with the directorate's list, he added.
From there, they would take the antidotes to the upazila points on its own to start the inoculation, according to him.
Talking about the little change in their existing vaccination planning, the DGHS boss said the initial planning was to inject 2.5 million people in two phases as they were told that the second dose needed to be taken in 28 days after the first one.
But, they got the latest information from both Beximco and AstraZeneca on Sunday that the second dose needed to be given in two months, he said.
"So, we got eight weeks of time to apply the second dose. That's why we've changed the plan and decided to vaccinate 5.0 million people in one go and the second shipment will arrive by this time for the second dose. By doing so, we will cover more people for the vaccination," he said.
About the side-effects, he said, each medicine has a mild to moderate negative outcome, but the percentage in the case of the vaccine in question is as low as 3.0 per cent. "But, our teams of expert will remain standby with required logistics," he added.
Dr Shamsul Haque, line director of the Expanded Programme for Immunisation (EPI) of the DGHS, said they will first vaccinate the health workers and volunteers, who will implement the vaccination programme.
"They will be monitored for a week before starting the countrywide inoculation. Hopefully, we will start the nationwide vaccination from the first week of February," he said.
The online registration process, jointly developed by ICT division, MIS of the DGHS and Dhaka district office, is expected to start from January 26, 2021, he noted.
He said some 5.0 million people will be vaccinated in the first month while another 5.0 million will receive the same in the second month.
He expressed the hope that coverage of 10 million of people under the vaccination will help reduce the risk of large-scale transmission of the virus in the society.
About the priority groups, he said, all healthcare professionals in public (452,027) and approved private healthcare facilities (600,000) along with 210,000 freedom fighters will be vaccinated in the first month.
Some 273,310 law enforcement agents out of 546,619 will get the vaccine in the first month and the remaining members will have the dose in the next month, he said.
Some 960,313 military and civilians under defence forces while 50,000 frontline journalists along with 178,298 public representatives will be vaccinated in the first two months, he said.
In terms of age, more than 2.4 million of elderly citizens aged over 77 years will also be inoculated in the first month while people aged between 70 to 76 years will receive the doses in the second month.
Bank employees along with representatives of religious communities will get vaccines in the second round. But, 120,000 unskilled migrated workers will get the priority and be vaccinated in the first two months because of their contributions to the economy.
"The first batch of vaccine recipients will get their second dose in the third month while the second batch will have their last dose in the fourth month before starting the third round," he added.
Mr Hoque said the registered vaccine recipients will get a card online and be notified about the date and place for the vaccine where they must show it.
The discussion with Covax authority is also ongoing. We are hopeful about receiving its first consignment sometime in May."
According to the DGHS sources, upazila health complexes, union parishads, district/sadar hospitals, public and private medical colleges and hospitals, specialised hospitals, police/BGB hospitals/CMH and chest disease hospital will be used for the vaccination.
It said a total of 7,344 teams will be working on implementing the inoculation programme. Each team will have six members, including two nurses who will inject the dose.
