Booster doses likely from next month
Work to start administering booster doses of Covid-19 vaccines to people aged 60 years and above is in full swing, with the rollout expected by early January.
The ICT division is now updating the "Surokkha" database with the list of individuals eligible for booster doses so that they can register for the jab, said Health Minister Zahid Maleque yesterday at the unveiling of the "Nationwide Blindness Survey 2020".
The development comes as calls for the coronavirus vaccine booster jab have grown louder, sparked by fears that waning immunity induced by earlier rounds of vaccination will not be enough to stave off a potential wave of infections from the highly transmissible Omicron variant.
While Maleque did not give a timeline for the rollout of the booster dose campaign, The Daily Star has learnt from health ministry officials involved in vaccine management that two weeks is needed to complete the technical tasks.
The campaign for booster shots will start in January at the earliest, they said on condition of anonymity as they are not authorised to speak with the media.
The Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) has been preparing the protocols for giving booster doses, which is a supplemental vaccine dose given to people when the immune response to a primary vaccine series is likely to have decreased over time.
People aged 60 years and above who have received the full dose of the Covid-19 vaccine will get the same vaccine as the booster dose, according to the officials.
The background tasks to roll out booster doses are underway, Toufiq Hassan Shawon, medical officer at the DGHS engaged in Covid-19 vaccination management, told The Daily Star yesterday.
"We will stay prepared and will start giving booster dose once the higher-ups take a call," he added.
The government's move to proceed with the booster dose campaign for the elderly goes against the National Immunisation Technical Advisory Group (NITAG).
When the majority of the target people has not received full doses of Covid-19 vaccines, it is unscientific and discriminatory to give booster doses, Benazir Ahmed, a member of the NITAG, told The Daily Star yesterday.
The government has targeted to inoculate 80 percent of the population. As of yesterday, 22.95 percent of the population has received the full dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, according to the DGHS.
"So we have advised not to start booster dose right now," Ahmed said.
The NITAG -- whose earlier counsel to not begin Covid-19 vaccination for children was unheeded by the government -- gave the advice in its latest meeting held earlier this week.
Meanwhile, the country witnessed another day of zero fatality from Covid-19 in the 24 hours to 8 am yesterday, the second since November 20 -- an encouraging development at a time when many countries around the world are experiencing a fresh wave of cases and fatalities.
With this, the total number of deaths due to Covid-19 remained at 28,016. This is about 1.77 percent of all confirmed cases.
During the period, a total of 262 new infections from Covid-19 were recorded to take the tally to 15,78,550.
The positivity rate was 1.22 percent from a total of 21,496 samples tested across the country.
Meanwhile, a total of 287 Covid-19 patients have recovered during the 24 hours.
The total number of recoveries now stands at 15,43,491 and the recovery rate at 97.78 percent, the press release added.
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