Several officials of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), including its Director General ABM Khurshid Alam, have contracted COVID-19 amid a spike in coronavirus infections across the country.
Prof Mizanur Rahman, director of Management Information System, is among the infected officials, according to DGHS officials.
"The DG has tested positive for the coronavirus,” DGHS spokesperson Dr Nazmul Islam on Saturday, reports bdnews24.com.
Dr Md Robed Amin, line director of the directorate's Non-Communicable Disease Control programme, said, “I have had a word with the MIS director. He along with his family members were diagnosed with the disease. Several family members of the DG, too, were infected, along with his PSO. Many who were around him caught the disease.”
On Feb 7, Alam was vaccinated against the coronavirus on the first day of the nationwide immunisation drive. He has now been diagnosed with the infection before receiving the second dose of the vaccine.
Earlier, Disaster Management and Relief Secretary Md Mohsin contracted the coronavirus 12 days after being vaccinated for the illness. Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner Md Shafiqul Islam was also hospitalised after contracting the coronavirus despite being vaccinated for the illness
However, vaccination does not 'completely eliminate' the risk of infection in all cases, Additional Director General of DGHS Nasima Sultana said at the time, citing clinical trials of all types of vaccines.
"Besides, a single dose of the vaccine will not be completely effective against the disease. It requires two doses. The efficacy of the vaccine in preventing the infection will become clear only after the two doses are administered," she explained.
Bangladesh is providing the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine produced by Serum Institute in India. One has to take two doses of it.
