Preparations for Vaccine Rollout: Race against time

The government is yet to finalise the list of healthcare professionals and volunteers to be part of the Covid-19 mass inoculation campaign, whose piloting is likely to begin later this week.  

Government officials said the piloting will take place at several public hospitals and the authorities there have also not finished preparing the lists of volunteers for it.

Bangladesh on Thursday received 20 lakh doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine as gift from the India government. Besides, it has purchased another three crore doses from the Serum Institute of India. Fifty lakh shots are expected to arrive on January 25.

The government plans to roll out the vaccines early next month.

Officials said health professionals were being trained for the inoculation campaign.

DGHS Director General Prof Abul Bashar Mohammad Khurshid Alam said they were ready to conduct the piloting and were waiting for the announcement of the inauguration date.

Asked about training health professionals and volunteers for the inoculation campaign, he told The Daily Star that they were being trained and that the training would be completed before the start of the vaccination.

Talking to this correspondent, several health officials said they were expecting that the piloting would start on January 27 or 28 depending on approval from the prime minister.

They also said that they were planning to launch the mass vaccination on February 8.

"Preparation is on and everything will be completed before the start of the inoculation campaign countrywide. As the vaccination will begin at Dhaka city and then will be introduced elsewhere, we will have enough time [to complete all preparations]," Dr Farid Hossain Mian, director (hospitals and clinics), told The Daily Star yesterday.

Each vaccination team will have six members -- two vaccinators and four volunteers.

"The vaccinators will be assigned from the nurses or Sub-Assistant Community Medical Officers (SACMO) while respective officials of vaccination centres will recruit volunteers locally," Dr Farid said.

On Thursday, the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) held a national level training session for civil surgeons, deputy civil surgeons and other health officials who will train the volunteers across the country.

"They [the trainees] will now provide training at the district level. We are hopeful that we will be able to recruit volunteers before the training starts in the upcoming weeks," said Mohammad Ibrahim Titon, civil surgeon of Rajbari.

Asked about the list of frontline workers who will receive the jabs first, Dr Hirombo Kumar Roy, civil surgeon of Rangpur, told this paper on Thursday night, "The list is yet to be finalised. But we will complete it within a few days … we have time for this."

Asked whether they have sufficient human resources to form vaccination teams, he said, "There will be only one team in each vaccination centre and we have enough nurses and SACMO for this."

Training for district and upazila level trainers is scheduled to be held from January 20 to 24 while training for the first line supervisors and vaccinators in upazilas and city corporations is scheduled to happen from today to January 26.

Orientations of the volunteers at district, upazila and city corporation levels have been scheduled to be held on January 26 and 27.

'VACCINATION INAUGURATION

DATE NOT FINALISED'

According to health officials, the piloting of the mass vaccination will start with 20-25 health workers and other professionals.

The prime minister is expected to inaugurate the event virtually -- likely to be arranged at Kurmitola General Hospital in the capital.

During a visit to the hospital yesterday, this correspondent talked to several employees. They said they heard that the piloting would be inaugurated by the PM, but added that they were not asked to submit their names for the piloting.  

No official comment was available on the issue.

On Wednesday Health Secretary Abdul Mannan said a day after the inauguration, 400 and 500 people would be given vaccine shots at Dhaka Medical College Hospital, Kurmitola General Hospital, Mugda Medical College Hospital and Kuwait-Bangladesh Friendship Government Hospital.

"We will observe the recipients for seven days," Mannan said, adding that there would be 300-330 vaccination centres across Dhaka city for the mass vaccination.

Dhaka district civil surgeon, Abu Hussain Md Moinul Ahsan, said, "We are working. Training of teams will end soon and we will be able to start the vaccination within days if we are asked," he told The Daily Star yesterday.

"As per the plan, the vaccination will continue slowly since the vaccine is new. So hopefully there will be no issues," he added.

Dr Shamsul Haque Mridha, a director at the DGHS, told this newspaper last night, "We have trained the trainers. Hopefully, they will complete training their teams on the vaccination by Sunday or Monday."