Covid booster campaign begins
The campaign for Covid-19 booster doses started in the country yesterday with vaccinating Runu Veronica Costa, a senior nurse at Kurmitola General Hospital.
She took the first shot of the Covid-19 vaccine on January 7.
Health Minister Zahid Maleque inaugurated the drive at Bangladesh College of Physicians and Surgeons in the capital's Mohakhali.
Sixty frontliners and elderly people, who received their second jabs at least six months ago, as per the criteria, were yesterday administered Pfizer booster shots.
Apart from Health Minister Zahid Maleque, Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen, Law Minister Anisul Huq, Fisheries Minister SM Rezaul Karim, Telecommunication Minister Mustafa Jabbar, Director General of Health Directorate Prof ABM Khurshid Alam, National Professor Shahla Khatun, a journalist, a police personnel and chief of Anjuman Mufidul Islam were in the list.
"I have taken the booster dose and I'm quite ok," said Momen after the event.
Health officials said all of the booster shot recipients will be observed for a week and later the campaign would be expanded countrywide.
Details to get a booster dose would be disclosed when the upgradation of Surokkha app, launched for the registration of Covid-19 vaccine, would be completed by December 28.
At the inauguration, Maleque, however, said even if the registration process for the booster shot does not begin, people will be given the dose using different documents.
He, however, did not go into details.
He said, "We need 43 lakh Pfizer shots by January for the booster dose campaign; we have 60 lakh shots in stock and will get two crore more next month."
"More than 85 percent of all Covid deaths were aged over 60. That is why they are being given booster doses," the minister added.
So far, 28,048 people have died from coronavirus in the country.
The minister stated that other programmes for Covid-19 vaccination would continue as usual.
Around 26 percent population have so far received two shots against the 80 percent target.
In another development, the Directorate General of Health Services yesterday said the two players of the National Women Cricket Team recovered from Omicron infection completely.
"After getting complete diagnosis results, they can be released from isolation today [yesterday]," Nazmul Islam, director of Disease Control at the DGHS, said during yesterday's briefing.
He also warned of the risk of Omicron as it has been spreading across Europe very fast.
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