Achieving the target to administer covid vaccine to 10 million people per month remains a distant dream as the country is still struggling to build sufficient vaccine reserve to bridge the demand gap.
Bangladesh, a country of 170 million people has set a target to vaccinate a little over 130 million at a rate of 10 million per month eying to wrap up the campaign in two and a half years.
The country will need to administer 260 million doses of vaccines-each needs to have two jabs--- to cover the targeted population. But in the last 6 months, until Thursday, only 1.09 million doses were administered.
The campaign that started on February 7 this year with 10.2 million AstraZaneca vaccines in hand suffered a major disruption when the supplier, Serum Institute of India (SII) stopped the delivery of the vaccine abruptly in March due to grave covid situation in India.
The unforeseen development forced the government to halt the vaccine campaign temporarily which was resumed later, in July after the arrival of the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine.
Talking to the FE Sabrina Flora, a spokesperson of the Directorate General of the Health Services, said that they have set a target to administer 10 million doses per month.
But she hastened to add that the success of the target would largely depend on the sufficient supply of vaccines.
"Our ultimate target is to administer vaccines to 130 million people and we require 260 million doses as each need 2 doses of the vaccines," she told the FE.
"The standard time to complete the vaccination by maximum 2 years but given the ground reality I think we are far from achieving the target," said Professor Muzaherul Huq, a former adviser to the World Health Organisation.
He also pointed out that administration of a booster dose may be required if the second dose would not be enough to provide sufficient immunity.
"There is no concrete evidence until now for how long these two doses would provide personal protection from the virus. According to several researches, it can give immunity for six months. So there may be the need of a booster dose and in that case, the vaccine requirement will be much higher" he observed.
Supply situation
Presently the stock of AstraZaneca, with which the campaign began, is nil. Bangladesh received a total of 10.2 million of this vaccine of Oxford origin from the Serum, including 3.2 million as a gift from the Indian government.
The government made a procurement deal with Serum for 30 million vaccine doses with the latter supplying 5 million doses each month. The company was paid for the vaccine but after supplying 7.0 million doses it halted the supply as the Indian government banned vaccine export to address domestic pandemic situation.
According to the Health Ministry, 10116771 doses of AstraZaneca were administered from February to April. Of these, 5820033 were given as first dose and 4296738 were given as second dose.
It shows that 1523295 people who received the first dose are yet to receive the second dose. The recipients concerned are in serious anxiety about their protection.
During the last couple of months, Bangladesh got 1.1 million Sinopharm vaccines from China as gift and resumed the campaign again.
In June agreement was inked with China on the supply of 15 million Sinopharm vaccines. Though the health ministry sought 5.0 million doses each month in July the company sent 2.0 million vaccines. Another lot is expected in the last week of July or in the first week of August.
Prior to his departure for the Tashkent Conference on Wednesday, Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen told he FE that China will offer another one million vaccine as gift and the formal announcement in this regard, might come this week.
Authorities here started the administration of the Sinopharm vaccines on June 19. So far, 651549 doses of Sinopharm vaccines have been administered as the first dose and 2259 given as the second dose.
Earlier, in May, 100620 doses of Pfizer vaccines were sent to the country under the international covid vaccine facility known as Covax.
Until Thursday, 46981 doses of Pfizer were administered as the first dose and when the same number of people will be given the second dose the present stock will finish.
Bangladesh will also receive another six million Pfizer vaccines under Covax facility in August, health minister Zahid Maleque said last week.
Bangladesh received 2.5 million Moderna vaccines from the USA and Covax facility and so far 112571 people have got the first dose of the vaccine,
Foreign Minister said that the USA will give another lot of Moderna soon.
"I hope that the number will be same like the previous lot" he added.
Apt from this, according to the minister Japan will provide 2.9 million doses of AstraZaneca to Bangladesh under Covid facility and the European Union will also send one million of AstraZaneca vaccine. Bangladesh is also in talks with Russia for procuring 15 million of Sputnik vaccines.
Another supply source remains to be the coproduction of vaccines for which Bangladesh is in talks with China and Russia.
But according to experts vaccine production through technology transfer will take at least more than a year.
It will be quicker under 'fill and finish' method of production, said Professor Dr Benazir Ahmed, a senior public health expert of the country.
Vaccination management
Experts are, however, critical of the present covid vaccination strategy on several counts.
The priority of the campaign should be to administer vaccines to the people aged over 60 since they are the most vulnerable, they said.
"By ensuring this, the fatality rate can be reduced to a great extent. But under the present strategy, this priority is missing" Professor Muzaherul Huq said suggesting that people having no NID should also be included in the campaign immediately.
There are birth registration certificates, and passports which can also be accepted as IDs for vaccinations, he said.
"Many elderly people are not tech savvy and cannot use apps. Some of them have their children living abroad. In many countries the authorities volunteered to locate elderly people and inoculated them" he added.
Dr Benazir Ahmed said apart from the old people, the super-spreader group including the mass-transport workers, restaurant workers should be included in the net on priority basis to reduce the risk of the spread manifold.
"And if we can administer doses to students then we can start the academic activities in education institutions", he noted.
He also criticised the move to exclude the health assistants from the vaccination drive.
The government is using the services of nurses to administer covid vaccines forgetting that Bangladesh is acclaimed worldwide for EPI (expanded programme of immunization). The union-level health assistants have been running the programme at the grassroots.
He opined undue political and bureaucratic interference is impeding the campaign.
