Covid Vaccination: Dhaka dist gets 4 lakh shots

The government has allocated four lakh shots of Covid-19 vaccine for Dhaka district, Prof Meerjady Sabrina Flora, additional director general of the health directorate, said yesterday.

Meanwhile, vaccines were yet to be allocated for Narayanganj and Gazipur districts.

The four lakh shots of Covid-19 vaccine are from the 20 lakh doses that were recently gifted by the Indian government.

Except Dhaka, Narayanganj and Gazipur, the government sent 50 lakh vaccine jabs, purchased from Serum Institute of India, to 61 districts by Sunday for the mass inoculation campaign against Covid-19.

As per the government's plan, 60 lakh people will be inoculated in the first month of vaccination beginning on February 7.

Since the first detection of Covid-19 cases in the country on March 8 last year, Dhaka, Narayanganj and Gazipur became the hotspots of Covid-19 cases.

Two of the first three patients were from Narayanganj city, The Daily Star found in an investigation.

As of yesterday, Dhaka division saw the highest 4,532 Covid-19 deaths (more than 56 percent) out of 8,137 casualties across the country, followed by 1,494 (more than 18 percent) in Chattogram.

Similarly, highest 1,50,629 people tested positive for Covid-19 in Dhaka city, while the number was 6,179 in Dhaka district, according to the IEDCR website information updated until December 15, 2020.

In the same period, 6,694 positive cases were found in Gazipur, says the IEDCR.

According to the Narayanganj civil surgeon office, 155 people died from Covid-19 in the district and 8,763 tested positive as of yesterday.

TRAINING YET TO BE FINISHED

Meanwhile, training of healthcare workers and volunteers at upazila and city corporation level has not been completed yet.

Many civil surgeon offices are yet to start the training programme, according to reports sent by our district correspondents.

Officials said they would be able to train all vaccinators and volunteers a day before the vaccine inoculation begins on February 7.

Experts, however, said the training should have been finished by this time.

"Obviously, this delay in training will create complexities. Because it will be challenging to manage vaccine waste and other minor issues, not just administering the injection," Prof Sayedur Rahman, of pharmacology at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, told The Daily Star yesterday.

A few districts where the training for vaccinators and volunteers were in progress as of yesterday were Moulvibazar, Pirojpur, Gaibandha, Bogura, and Rangamati, report our correspondents there.

Health officials of Chapainawabganj have completed the training, while the training was yet to kick off in Pabna, report our district correspondents.

Asked, Dr Shamsul Haque Mridha, member secretary of the national vaccination committee at the DGHS, told The Daily Star yesterday, "The training will be completed by February 6 and there will be no problem."

Meanwhile, all healthcare workers across the country have to stay at their workplaces until February 10 for Covid-19 vaccination and none will be granted any leave during the period, Prof ABM Khurshid Alam, director general of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), said yesterday.

He was briefing journalists at the heath directorate after a virtual meeting with all civil surgeons, upazila health officers and directors of medical colleges.

Vaccination will remain off on government holidays, the DG said.

SLOW IN REGISTRATION

As of 5:00pm yesterday, 30,000 people have registered online for vaccination, according to the Management Information System unit at the DGHS.

Experts said the registration was progressing at a slow pace while officials said otherwise.

"Many of the frontline workers have assumed that their registrations have been done as they submitted their names and NID numbers to their organisation heads. But all of them have to register online individually," Toufiq Hassan Shawon, medical officer at the MIS, told this paper yesterday.

He, however, could not say how many frontline workers have been included in the priority list so far.

DELAY IN APP APPROVAL

Meanwhile, Google has not yet authorised the "Surokkha" mobile app, through which people can register online for the mass vaccination campaign.

"Google has replied that they would take up to seven days whereas it normally takes three days. Due to the Covid-19 emergency, Google is taking more time than usual," said Dr Toufiq.