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The government is set to restart the Covid-19 inoculation campaign with booster dose this week as it has received three million shots of Variant Containing Vaccine (VCV) under the COVAX facility, said the health minister.
This time the third and fourth doses of the Covid-19 vaccine will be administered, added Health and Family Welfare Minister Zahid Maleque while addressing a press conference on Covid-19 vaccination at the Secretariat in Dhaka on Monday.
The vaccine will be applied to a certain number of people, said the minister, adding with these doses, people over 60 years of age will be inoculated for the fourth time and those over 18 years of age will be inoculated for the third time.
Zahid Maleque said Bangladesh has received 11 per cent of the total vaccine shots received in the entire world.
From those, 88.51 per cent of the country's total population have been given the 1st dose, 82.18 per cent the 2nd dose, 39.62 per cent the 3rd dose and 1.85 per cent the 4th dose.
The Health Minister said there are no side-effects in the use of the VCV vaccine and the World Health Organization and other organisations have a positive opinion about its use.
He added the 3rd dose will be given to people aged 18 years and above and the 4th dose to people aged 60 years and above or people aged 18 years and above with long-term illnesses, pregnant women and frontline fighters.
The third dose will be given after four months of receiving the 2nd dose while the 4th dose after four months of receiving the 3rd dose, he added.
"The National Technical Committee on Immunization also has its approval and opinion, and we also have drug administration approval," said the minister.
"We have already completed the trial work with positive feedback. We are making arrangements to give this vaccine to the vaccination centers that are in the city corporation areas, districts and upazilas across the country," the minister added.
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