Training for Covid-19 vaccination starts in Bangladesh  

The government has started providing necessary training to health staffers across the country to initiate the Covid-19 vaccination programme which is expected to be inaugurated by the first end of February.

The training programmes have started on Wednesday and officials are determined to complete the process by the end of this month both physically and virtually, according to officials at the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).

Some total 40 to 42 thousand health staffers will come under the training programme concurrently arranged by central and local administrations, while some 7,344 vaccination teams will carry out the vaccination programme across the country.

“Necessary directions have already been sent to field level administration to this effect. We have already issued a primary letter to the local administration asking to arrange training and other activities in order to be prepared for vaccination,” Director at the DGHS Shamsul Haque told the FE.

“We provided all the directions to them through a video conference from Dhaka, and we will send a planning letter to the district and upazila administration accordingly for the vaccination programme in one or two days,” he added.

Besides, “The preparation for availing transportation facilities for the distribution of the vaccines, storage of syringes and safety boxes and other related materials, has already been completed.” 

Now, we could operate as asked by the government during the vaccination programme across the country, he mentioned, adding that “The number of health staffers has been finalised initially. If we bring more vaccine doses we would arrange more such training for health workers if needed.”

The DGHS has also submitted a procurement order for availing some 30 million AD syringes to operate the vaccination programme and some five million will come in the first phase against the first shot of importing vaccine from Serum Institute of India.

Beximco Pharmaceuticals Ltd will bring the vaccine under a tripartite agreement inked in December last with the government and Serum Institute of India, the world's largest vaccine manufacturer that has been producing the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.

The government announced that the first installment of five million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca's Covid-19 vaccine will arrive by January 20-25.

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