'Students aged 12 or above to get vaccine'

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today reiterated her government's steps to provide Covid-19 vaccine to all citizens above 18 years, saying a plan is underway to gradually bring students of 12 years and above under vaccination coverage.

"At present, age limit has been reduced to 18 to bring public and private universities' students under vaccination... but, measures are also being taken to bring all students of 12 years and above under vaccination coverage," she said.

She also mentioned government's steps to administer vaccines to 50 percent of the population by December next following the guidelines of the World Health Organization.

The Premier, also the Leader of the House, made these remarks in the Jatiya Sangsad while replying to a tabled question from Jatiya Party lawmaker Md Rostam Ali Faraji of Pirojpur-3.

She said so far, arrangements were made to collect a total of 24,65,13,660 doses of jabs while steps have been taken to get more than one crore doses of vaccine every month.

She also added according to the schedule given by Sinopharm, a total of six crore vaccines -- two crore doses each month -- will be available in the country till December from October.

Speaker Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury chaired the 14th session of the 11th Jatiya Sangsad.

Sheikh Hasina said among the 24,65,13,660 doses of vaccine which is supposed to get, a total of 4,44,31,880 doses have been received as a bilateral purchase agreement and gift till September 12, 2021.

She said in order to bring the ongoing vaccination program to the doorsteps of the people in all the divisional headquarters, district headquarters and upazila headquarters, the people are already being given the jabs through 673 vaccination centers.

She continued that till September 12, 2021, there is 96,54,119 doses of jabs in store.

The Prime Minister told the Sangsad that so far, a total of 3,47,77,761 doses of jabs have been given, of which, 2,09,22,715 people have received the first dose while 1,38,55,046 people have been given the second dose.

Expressing her hope to tackle this pandemic with the cooperation of all, she reiterated her call to countrymen to follow health safety protocol strictly alongside taking vaccines.

She noted that when a certain population is brought under vaccination in a certain proportion, the community is no longer infected.

She continued it is yet to be identified in the case of Coronavirus that how many people are needed to be vaccinated in every 100 people to develop hard immunity.

The issue is still under study and that is why the government currently has a plan to vaccinate all Bangladeshi citizens above the age of 18 against Covid-19, she added.

In this connection, Sheikh Hasina said, the government is continuing its endeavor to collect vaccine from different sources.

Source: BSS