Bangladesh has begun a nationwide vaccination programme with hopes of spurring a quick recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic.
Health Minister Zahid Maleque launched the drive virtually at Mohakhali health centre at 10 am on Sunday, reports bdnews24.com.
Earlier, three Supreme Court justices were vaccinated at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University at around 9 am. Dr Dipankar Ghosh took the first jab at Dhaka Medical College Hospital at 9:30 am.
Vaccine shots are being given in 1,015 hospitals and health centres across the country, including 50 in Dhaka. From Monday onwards, vaccines will be administered every day from 8 am to 2:30 pm at the centres.
A team of 204 health workers in Dhaka and 2,196 outside Dhaka are engaged in vaccination work.
A total of 7,344 teams of health workers and volunteers have been formed to continuously vaccinate people against the coronavirus.
Everyone interested in being inoculated must first register for the vaccines. More than 300,000 people have registered until Saturday.
DMCH Director Nazmul Haque said more than 3,000 people have registered for the vaccines at the hospital. Four to five hundred people will be vaccinated on Sunday, he added.
The vaccines are being administered in four booths, Nazmul said. The participants are kept under observation for 20-30 minutes after the shots.
Arrangements have been made in the case of any side effects, he said. However, no such responses have been recorded yet.
Bangladesh is using the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine which has been manufactured by the Serum Institute of India. Each person will be given two doses of the vaccine.
The government has purchased 30 million doses of the vaccine from the Serum Institute of India.
It has already received a total of seven million doses of the vaccine, including two million free doses from the Indian government.
According to the national Covid vaccine distribution and preparation plan, the government will inoculate 80 per cent of the country's population, or around 138.24 million people.
The doses will be administered in five stages under three phases. Priorities will be given to health workers and others on the frontline of the fight against the virus.