Govt takes measures to collect 24.54 crore doses of Covid-19 vaccine

Prime Minister and Leader of the House Sheikh Hasina today told Parliament that the government has already taken measures to collect 24.54 crore doses of Covid-19 vaccine as part of its initiative to inoculate all the people.  
 
"We have so far taken measures to collect 24.54 crore doses of Covid-19  vaccine," she said while replying to a tabled question from  treasury bench lawmaker Shahiduzzaman Sarker from Naogaon-2 constituency in the 14th session of the 11th parliament with Speaker Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury presiding.
 
The Prime Minister said the government has ensured getting over one crore doses of jabs per month while as per the schedule of the Sinopharm, the company will provide six crore doses of its vaccine by December with giving two crore per month from October.
 
In total 2.61 crore doses of the Covid-19 have so far been administered till 30 August, 2021 of which 1.82 crore people have got a single dose while 78.40 lakh have received two doses of the vaccine, she said.
 
The Premier said that her government has set up 673 vaccine centres at divisional, district and upazila sadar levels across the country to bring all the people under the inoculation.

The Prime Minister said that collection of vaccines is an ongoing process as the government is determined to give it to all free of cost.  
 
The Prime Minister said that the government has communicated with all the vaccine producing organizations earlier before they have got approval.  
 
She added that of the organizations, they only got response from Indian Serum Institute (at that time) and booked three crore doses of vaccine with paying in advance.
 
The Premier said they later got response from Sinopharm of China and Sputnik-V of Russia.  
 
Immediately after getting response from the organizations, she said they have signed agreement with Sinopharm and also signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for local production, she said.  
 
In replying to another question from opposition Jatiya Party lawmaker Shamim Haider Patwari, the prime Minister said that her government has taken measures to put an end to river erosion permanently.
 
To this end, she said that they have adopted the Delta Plan-2100 to make sure overall river management, water supply in urban and rural areas, waste management and control flood and river erosion alongside arranging river training and maintaining navigability.
 
In accordance with the plan the entire country has been divided into seven river basins while a survey to this end is going on mentioning that the surveys in Karnaphuli, Sangu and Matamuhiri rivers have already been completed.
 
The Leader of the House also said it will be possible to attain desired sustainable development by reducing flood risk and protecting river erosion.
 
Replying to a query from treasury bench lawmaker Mahfuzur Rahman from Chattogram-3, the Prime Minister said that it has been possible to meet the local demand of the sacrificial animals in the last four years due to increase of their domestic production thanks to the measures taken by the government.  
 
She added that around 28 lakh sacrificial animals remained surplus during the Eid-ul-Azha as their production was 11916700 against the demand for 9093242.
 
The Prime Minister said due to the measures taken by the government the milk production has increased five times higher while egg production has increased four times in the last 12 years.