Slum-dwellers get vaccines from Tuesday

With a target of inoculating three crore people across the country by this month, the government is all set to roll out a Covid-19 vaccination programme on Tuesday at Korail, one of the biggest slums in Dhaka, which accommodates around three lakh people.

"The vaccination programme at the Korail slum will start on Tuesday at 9 am," said Dr Shamsul Haque, member secretary of the Covid-19 Vaccine Management Taskforce under the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).

About 20-25 booths will be set up there for hassle-free inoculation.

"Majority of the slum dwellers work outside on working days, so we will keep arrangement on Fridays so that they can receive their shots at their convenient time," he told The Business Standard.

Meanwhile, Health Minister Zahid Maleque said all the dwellers in other slums would also get their shots in phases soon.

He came up with the announcement at a programme in the capital on Monday afternoon. "The slum dwellers will be jabbed through prior registration. Besides, there will be an arrangement for spot registration," he added.

Currently, the government is administering 15 lakh doses every day to meet the targets – jabbing three crores by November, and 70% of the population by January next.

The authorities believe that vaccination in the slumps will help fulfil the target fast as the population density in these areas are very high.

On vaccine availability, the minister said the government currently has 2.75 crore shots in stocks. Besides, vaccine-production activities locally are underway in Gopalganj, he added.

"We have planned to bring the areas with comparatively higher population density under the vaccination coverage," Zahid Maleque stated, adding that the government also planned to inoculate garment workers soon.

Earlier, the authorities started jabbing the physically challenged, aspiring migrant workers and other groups of people.

4 more die in 24hrs

Another four people died of Covid-19 in the country during the last 24 hours period till 8 am Monday.

Besides, 234 more tested positive for the virus during the same period.

The current positivity rate was reported at 1.32% after 17,700 samples were tested across the country.

Earlier on Sunday, Bangladesh reported four deaths and 223 cases.

With the latest additions, the death toll reached 27,926 and the case tally increased to 15,72,735 in the country.