Govt’s 6-Day Campaign: Vaccine target met in 2 days
The government achieved the target of administering 32 lakh Covid vaccine jabs in just two days though it had fixed a six-day timeline for the mass inoculation drive.
Hundreds of people across the country had to return home empty-handed from many vaccination centres that ran out of vaccine shots.
"We have already achieved the target today [yesterday]… The vaccination centres that are yet to administer jabs under the campaign will do so any day within August 12," Dr Shamsul Haque, member secretary of the Covid-19 vaccination campaign, told The Daily Star last night.
With the Delta variant spreading across the country, the government chalked out the special inoculation campaign at around 6,000 centres up to the union level in rural areas and the ward level in urban areas in addition to 1,005 centres up to the upazila level.
Under the campaign, people aged 25 and above are getting jabs. Those aged above 50, women and physically challenged people are being inoculated on a priority basis.
The vaccination centres in Dhaka and other parts of the country saw huge crowds yesterday, the second day of the campaign.
As in the previous day, many centres in the capital ran out of vaccine shots within a couple of hours after the inoculation drive began at 9:00am.
Waiting in long queues for hours, hundreds of people returned home unvaccinated.
Md Khokon, a 60-year-old businessman, along with his wife went to the Nagar Health Centre in the city's Azimpur in the morning to get vaccinated. But he could not get a jab.
"The procedure [for getting jabs] is very troublesome. One needs to get attested a copy of his national identity card by a councillor and then collect a token from the vaccination centre…," he told this newspaper yesterday.
As the centre at Azimpur had only 300 jabs, many had to return home empty-handed.
More than 3,000 people thronged another vaccination centre in the city's East Bhasantek since early in the morning.
"I did not get vaccine yesterday [Saturday]. I joined a long queue at the centre around 5:00am today [yesterday]. But there was so much rush that I decided to return home around 11:00am," said 59-year-old Md Harun who lives in a slum.
In Gazipur, several hundred people gathered at Shaheed Tajuddin Ahmed Medical College Hospital for getting inoculated. The fifth floor of the hospital, where the vaccination programme was arranged, was jam-packed.
"There was such a huge crowd that I felt suffocated… I managed to take a jab around 1:00pm after waiting for four hours," said SA Mamun from Kaliakoir upazila.
However, many had to go back home empty-handed.
Health department officials in Munshiganj said their target of inoculating 42,000 people was met yesterday and that they would not continue the special campaign.
Hundreds of people queued for jabs at vaccination centres in the district yesterday. But a large number of them had to return home unvaccinated, reports our Munshiganj correspondent.
Upazila Health Officer Muhammad Rezaul Haque in Sreenagar upazila said, "Around 1,500 people did not get vaccine shots. Our vaccine stock has already run out."
In Feni, more than 500 people crowded Alia Madrasa Government Primary School centre by 9:00am to get vaccinated but the centre had only 200 shots.
"After waiting for over two hours, I learnt that I would not get a jab," said Saleha Khatun, a resident of Feni town.
There were huge crowds at different vaccination centres in Sylhet yesterday.
Talking to this newspaper, Dr Md Jahidul Islam, chief health officer of Sylhet City Corporation, said, "On the first day [Saturday], we administered vaccine doses to 23,753 people. Today [yesterday], another 24,000 got vaccinated. Now we are facing a shortage of jabs and unsure whether to continue the mass vaccination campaign tomorrow [today]."
In Pabna, officials of the health department did not run the special campaign yesterday as the vaccination centres already ran out of vaccine doses.
Earlier on Saturday, 50,000 people were inoculated in the district.
Dr Monisor Chowdhury, civil surgeon of Pabna, said two lakh people in the district got registered for vaccination and 1.40 lakh of them have received jabs so far.
In Rajshahi city, all 84 vaccination centres saw huge crowds yesterday.
On Saturday, some 34,000 people were vaccinated against the target of 25,000.
Asked, Prof ABM Khurshid Alam, director general at the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), said, "On-the-spot registration emerged as the biggest challenge during the vaccination campaign. We have to rethink our decision about it."
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