Health workers are having to cope with demand that far exceeds their daily allocation of COVID vaccine doses during Bangladesh’s latest mass vaccination push, reports bdnews24.com.
Monday, the third day of the vaccination drive, saw large numbers of people turning out for the vaccine – meaning that many had to be turned away due to the limited vaccine stock.
Bangladesh had initially set a target of administering 3.2 million first doses over the course of the six-day campaign, but the number has already exceeded 3.5 million in the first two days.
Health officials say that some areas have had to reduce the number of daily doses they administer due to the shortfall in allocations.
The vaccination centres in Dhaka city on Monday were heavily crowded, with some queuing since dawn for the chance to get the shots.
But, due to the daily allocation of only 350 shots per centre, many had to leave without receiving the dose.
Dhaka District Civil Surgeon Dr Abu Hussain Md Moinul Ahsan says the public enthusiasm has far exceeded the government’s projections.
“The public interest was much greater than we thought. The demand is much higher than our projections, so we haven’t been able to meet it.”
Vaccines are no longer being administered in the district outside the Dhaka city area as they have already reached the mass vaccination programme’s targets, he said.
A similar situation is playing out in the Sylhet City Corporation, where demand has so far exceeded supply that vaccine centres have had to cut back on the number they administer in order to preserve the stock.
“Too many people are turning up in the city corporation area,” said Dr Himangshu Lal Roy, director of health services for Sylhet Division. “We only received a certain number of vaccines. As the supply is limited, we cannot give it to whoever comes to the centre.”
“We were administering 300 doses at every booth in the city corporation wards but have had to cut that back to 200 doses. But six or seven times that number are coming to the centres.”
The official said that vaccines were being distributed on ‘the basis of priority’, but that they were trying to keep the ratio of men to women equal.
The division has administered doses to 111,000 men and 98,000 women under the programme, he said.
Dr Motaharul Islam, director of health services for Rangpur Division, said that the city corporation has halted its mass vaccination campaign as its stock of allocated vaccines has run out.
“We are not administering any vaccines in our division today,” he said. “We were distributing them on Aug 7 and Aug 8 and a huge number of people turned out.”
Though the mass vaccination drive has been suspended at the district level, efforts are still underway to get the vaccines to more remote areas, said Bandarban Civil Surgeon Dr Ang Sui Pru Marma.
“The coverage in some of our remote areas, like Ruma and Thanchi, is a bit low. We have told field level workers to administer vaccines when the weather improves. Many people in hilly areas are unable to leave home during the rain. Even then, I’d say, that our coverage is not too bad.”
“Many people have queued to get the vaccines in Bandarban Sadar and in various unions. Huge numbers. But we haven’t been able to give it to all of them. The demand is still very high.”
The Bangladesh government plans to inoculate some 140 million citizens from COVID-19 free of cost. So far it has managed to administer doses to some 22.5 million.
