The government has decided to inoculate workers travelling to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait with the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer-BioNTech.
The vaccination drive will begin on Thursday, Health Minister Zahid Maleque said on Tuesday.
Kuwait and Saudi Arabia do not quarantine those who take Pfizer vaccine shots, whereas 14-day quarantines are mandated for anyone vaccinated with other vaccines.
The government is paying Tk 25,000 in subsidy to each Bangladeshi migrant workers travelling to Saudi Arabia to help them quarantine at hotels there, reports bdnews24.com.
A traveller from Bangladesh needs to spend Tk 70,000 on the quarantine, Maleque said.
“So the expatriate workers will be given the Pfizer vaccine. It is a decision coming from the prime minister,” he said.
“We are going to follow a list from the expatriates welfare ministry for the inoculation. Vaccination will be carried out in seven hospitals in Dhaka.”
Workers set to travel to these countries can take their jabs at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, Dhaka Medical College Hospital, Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital, Sir Salimullah Medical College Hospital, Mugda Medical College Hospital, Kurmitola General Hospital, and Sheikh Russel National Gastroliver Institute and Hospital, according to the minister.
The government received 100,620 Pfizer doses under the global COVID vaccine-sharing platform co-led by the World Health Organization on May 31.
As many as 360 people received the vaccine at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University Hospital, Sheikh Russel National Gastroliver Institute and Kurmitola General Hospital in a dry-run on Jun 21.
Bangladesh registered 7,666 new cases of COVID-19 in a day, taking the total caseload from the disease to 904,436 on Tuesday.
It also registered 112 deaths from the coronavirus in the same period, taking the total death toll from the disease to 14,388, according to the latest government data.
