The Covid-19 vaccination centres are a hub of chaos now after the government scrapped the mandatory registration for the jab from February 16 and with the window to get the first dose slamming shut on February 26.

"Usually, we vaccinate around 1,500 people every day. But this number has reached around 4,000 in the past few days," said Ayesha Akter, assistant director at 250-Bed TB Hospital in Dhaka's Agargaon.

It is mainly because of the scrapping of registration as well as people's awareness, she said.

On February 16, about 2.78 lakh in Bangladesh got their first jabs, according to data from the Directorate General of Health Services. Yesterday, 15.5 lakhs took the dose.

"We have assigned additional staffers as we are struggling to finish daily vaccination by 2 pm."

There is a similar rush in around the dozen Covid-19 vaccination centres in the area of late, according to Akter.

Around noon yesterday, there was a long queue inside and outside the vaccination centre at the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University Hospital.

Officials and the security personnel were seen struggling to maintain discipline.

A mad rush of people, mostly garment workers, caused pandemonium in Savar's Health Management Institute Vaccine Centre yesterday, reports our correspondent.

Our correspondents from Thakurgaon and Khulna also reported a similar rush in vaccination centres there yesterday.

Meanwhile, the DGHS has set a target to give first dose vaccines to one crore people to fulfil the target to inoculate 70 percent of the population through 24,500 makeshift vaccine centres countrywide in addition to the 1,005 regular centres on February 26.

Achieving the target might be tougher as they are already overwhelmed with the onrush of the crowd, officials at the vaccine centres told The Daily Star.

"We have to vaccinate more than 12 lakh people to reach the 70 percent target. It will be hard to achieve as Barishal is a hard-to-reach region," Humayun Rashid Khan, divisional health director of the DGHS in Barishal, told journalists on Tuesday.