Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has urged people not to take seriously criticisms of the government’s efforts to bring coronavirus vaccines and immunise them.
The government initiated the steps to bring the vaccine because it gives top priority to the people’s lives, the prime minister said.
Sheikh Hasina came up with the statement while addressing a discussion arranged by Jubo League on Wednesday.
“We’ve already begun giving the vaccine, but we have to hear many things. It will be (unwise) if you pay heed to these words,” she said on joining the event at Krishibid Institution via video call from the Ganabhaban.
“Many said that vaccines would not arrive in Bangladesh. Many developed countries could not bring the vaccines. But I didn’t lose focus, because the people and their lives are the most important thing to me,” she added.
The mass immunisation campaign began Sunday following a dry run after the ruling party chief inaugurated the vaccination drive last month.
Bangladesh is using the Oxford University-AstraZeneca vaccine doses, manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, in the inoculation drive.
Studies proved the vaccine safe and efficient, but the BNP criticised the procurement of the vaccine from India. Some suggested Bangladeshis would be used as lab rats to test the vaccine.
Hasina said she had fast-tracked the payment for the vaccine so that Bangladesh can get the doses whenever they are manufactured. “It has worked,” she said.
She asked the Jubo League leaders and activists to help people get the vaccine.
“The fears they initially had are gone now.”
But, she stressed, everyone should continue wearing masks, washing hands with soap and water or sanitiser frequently and maintaining physical distancing even after getting the vaccine until the pandemic is over.
Besides Jubo League President Sheikh Fazle Shams Parash and General Secretary Mainul Hossain Khan Nikhil, Awami League leaders attended the event.
