The Directorate General of Health Services has advised citizens awaiting their second dose of Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID vaccine to swiftly take their shots.
In an emergency notice on Monday, DGHS said the vaccine seekers will be able to receive their second doses even if they do not receive an SMS confirmation from authorities, reports bdnews24.com.
Prof Mizanur Rahman, director of DGHS’ Management Information Centre, said, “An SMS is supposed to be sent for second doses. Even if [vaccine seekers] don’t get that, they can travel to the centres.”
“They have to mention that they’ve already taken their first doses bringing their vaccine cards along. The vaccination workers will then administer the dose.”
Bangladesh began its mass vaccination drive in February using the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine from the Serum Institute of India.
Bangladesh received two shipments of Oxford-AstraZeneca’s COVISHIELD vaccine as part of an agreement for 30 million doses before India stopped exporting the vaccine produced by the Serum Institute as the country itself was grappling with the pandemic crisis.
This put Bangladesh’s vaccination drive in doubt as the authorities halted giving out the first doses of the vaccine in April. At one point, the second doses were suspended too.
The vaccination drive once again resumed following the arrival of Sinopharm vaccines from China. But the 1.52 million people who had received the first shots of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine were left out.
In July, Bangladesh received two shipments of vaccines comprising 245,200 doses and 781,320 doses under the COVAX global vaccine-sharing platform. Then in August, another 616,780 doses and 781,000 doses arrived in Dhaka, taking the total of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine doses to more than 12.62 million.
After receiving the vaccine shipments from Japan, the government began administering the second dose to the masses at the outset of August.
DGHS accounts say as many as 5.82 million people received the first doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, while 5.19 million completed their dosage with the second shots.