online desk ; Health and Family Welfare Minister Zahid Maleque on Tuesday said vaccine is the only remedy to eradicate COVID-19 pandemic from the country.
“We have been able to free the country from various diseases including polio and plague through conducting massive immunization campaign…. Like previous successes of immunization drive, we can contain the spread of coronavirus in Bangladesh through injecting vaccines into human body,” he said, an official release said.
The minister told a discussion marking the World NTD (Neglected Tropical Diseases) Day in a city hotel.
Secretary of Health Service Division Abdul Mannan, Director General of Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) Prof Dr Abul Bashar Mohammad Khurshid Alam, President of Bangladesh Medical Association Dr. Mustafa Jalal Mohiuddin, President of Swadhinata Chikitsak Parishad Dr Iqbal Arsenal, Representative of the World Health Organization (WHO) Dr Bardan Jung Rana, among others, addressed the discussion with Line Director of Infectious Disease Prevention and Control Unit Dr Nazmul Islam in the chair.
“A section of people are spreading rumour over COVID-19 vaccine… but people received COVID-19 vaccines spontaneously ignoring their rumours,” the health minister said adding all sorts of rumours have been proved false as all vaccine receivers are well.
He said 1.7 crore people are infected by neglected tropical diseases in the world. Twenty diseases have been identified as neglected tropical diseases, Maleque said, adding Bangladesh has been able to eradicate 13 NCDs and the remaining diseases are on the verge of eradication.
The countrywide vaccination drive is set to begin on February 7, the health ministry sources said.
Bangladesh received its first ever COVID-19 vaccine consignment on January 21 (Thursday) as India sent 20 lakh doses of vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca as gift.
The first consignment of COVID-19 50 lakh Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines purchased by the government landed in Dhaka on January 25.
The total vaccine doses stand at 70 lakh doses now, according to the health ministry.
The possible vaccine recipients as per the priority list are 452,027 government health workers and approved 600,000 private health workers directly engaged in the Covid-19 health services.
The other priority groups includes – 210,000 freedom fighters, 546,620 members of the frontline law enforcement agencies, 360,913 members from the military and civil defense forces, 50,000 officials and employees working in the offices which are indispensable for governing the state, 50,000 frontline media personnel, 178,298 elected representatives, 150,000 frontline employees of the city corporations and pourasabhas, 541,000 religious representatives, 75,000 people engaged in funeral works, 400,000 staff engaged in emergency water, gas, sewerage, power, fire service and transport services.
Besides, 150,000 workers of land, river and air ports, 120,000 expatriate unskilled workers, 400,000 government employees engaged in district and upazila-level emergency public services, 197,621 officials and employees of banks, 625,000 low immunity people (tuberculosis, AIDS and cancer patients), 10,326,658 elderly people from the 64-79 age group, 1,312,973 elderly people from the 80-plus age group, 21,863 players of the national teams (including football, cricket and hockey national teams) and 170,000 people from buffer, emergency and outbreak groups are included in the list.
