The COVID 19 vaccination programme in Bangladesh will start in the first week of February. Announcing this Director-General of the Health Services Prof. Abul Bashar Mohammad Khurshid Alam told media persons in Dhaka on Monday that the vaccine from India will arrive in Bangladesh between January 21-25. The vaccine will be sent to different districts of the country as per the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) list. The vaccination will start one week after the arrival of vials from India.

The online registration for vaccination will start on January 26. People will be required to give consent and collect vaccination cards through online registration.

The DGHS in a press release announced the detailed plan of vaccination for various categories of people across the country. The frontline health workers in the government and the private sector, law enforcement, military and civil defence forces at the forefront of COVID 19 related work and elderly people will get priority in the first phase of the vaccination programme. The government has constituted more than 7300 vaccination teams to conduct the programme in the country. 

DGHS will also set up a primary medical support system at the vaccination centres to take care of any adverse effects of the vaccine on an individual.

50 lakh people will be vaccinated in the first phase. The second shot of the vaccine will be given 8 weeks after the first dose. The vaccine will be provided free of cost to people.

A tripartite agreement was signed on December 13 between Bangladesh government, Beximco Pharmaceuticals Ltd (BPL) and the Serum Institute of India (SII) for the supply of 3 crore vaccines developed by University of Oxford and AstraZeneca to Bangladesh.