From now on, children aged between 12 and 17 will get Covid-19 vaccines without any documents, Health Minister Zahid Maleque said yesterday.

"We have 10 crore doses of vaccines in stock, but many have not taken vaccines yet … so the children aged 12 [and above] will get vaccines without any birth certificates. They have to only provide name, age and mobile phone number [for on-the-spot registration]," he said.

The minister was speaking before he inaugurated kidney dialysis beds and an oxygen generation plant at the capital's Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital.

Starting from November 1 last year, around 1.45 crore schoolchildren from this age group out of around 1.5 crore have received the first dose of vaccine till Sunday, according to the Directorate General of Health Services data.

Before yesterday's announcement, the schoolchildren needed relevant documents like birth registration certificate to get vaccines.

At the programme, the minister opened 126 kidney dialysis beds at Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital, Mugda Medical College Hospital, Sir Salimullah Medical College and at Kurmitola General Hospital.

He also inaugurated an oxygen generation plant at Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital, which is capable of producing 532 litres of medical oxygen per minute.

Last year, the health and family welfare ministry undertook three projects to set up 99 such plants at different hospitals to cope with the shortage of oxygen due to the rise in Covid-19 cases.

Maleque said, "There is no shortage of oxygen in Bangladesh. It will be wrong if any confusion is created over the oxygen [issue]."

He claimed that installation of 22 plants were already completed, but most of them were yet to go into production.

The minister said, "We are yet to get the equipment of the remaining plants [77]. We expect to get the equipment by March."

CASES, DEATHS DECLINE

The DGHS reported 4,692 cases of Covid-19 yesterday, indicating a steady decline in cases from February 7.

Nineteen more Covid patients died. This number was 28 the previous day.

Yesterday's positivity rate was 13.53 percent.