The World Health Organization (WHO) has approved the vaccination of those who are under 18 years of age in Bangladesh, said Health Minister Zahid Maleque on Sunday.
"I've met WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and he has given a nod to it [vaccination of those under 18] when we sought his advice on vaccination of students," he said.
The minister revealed the information at a press briefing on Covid-19 vaccine at BCPS auditorium in the capital, as per a report on UNB.
The health minister said students between 12-17 years will be inoculated with US-produced Pfizer vaccine doses as it is suitable for them.
"We're preparing for that. We've 6.0 million doses of Pfizer vaccine in stocks; we'll get another four million doses soon. We've no crisis now."
He also expressed the hope that the government will be able to vaccinate 80 million people with double doses between December and January, and another 40 million with double doses between March and April.
A total of 120 million people will be fully vaccinated by April next, said the minister.
"Bangladesh will receive 30 million more doses of Covid-19 vaccine in October, 37.5 million in November, 50 million in December and 37.5 million in January. About 160 million doses will be procured or collected from various sources by January.
On September 12, the students of schools and colleges in Bangladesh returned to their classrooms after an 18-month closure due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Bangladesh started administering the first doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine at three centres in Dhaka to fight off Covid-19 on June 21.
The United States said it is committed to leading the global response to the Covid-19 pandemic and they will begin this summer the allocation of 500 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine it is providing to Gavi for distribution by COVAX to countries around the world.
US President Joe Biden reaffirmed this commitment by announcing that his country will donate 80 million doses of vaccines to support global needs.
