People aged over 40 years to be vaccinated: Health Minister

Health Minister Zahid Maleque on Monday said people aged over 40 years will get Covid-19 vaccine.

People above 40 years and the family members of those who got vaccinated will be allowed to take the jabs, reports UNB. 

Health Minister Zahid Maleque verbally ordered the authorities concerned to take steps in this regard, said Maidul Islam Prodhan, senior information officer of the health ministry.

Nationwide vaccination drive

The government rolled out a countrywide mass Covid-19 vaccination drive on Sunday, aiming to end the pandemic.

Health Minister Zahid Maleque inaugurated the nationwide inoculation programme through a videoconference from the Health Directorate around 10:30 am.

The vaccine will be administered at 1,005 centers across the country.

Health Minister Zahid Maleque received the first shot of the vaccine at Sheikh Russel National Gastroliver Institute & Hospital in the morning.

According to the DGHS, 50 booths have been set up in 50 hospitals in Dhaka while a total of 204 teams of health workers will administer the vaccine.

Situation in Bangladesh

Fifteen more people died of Covid-19 and 292 others got infected by the deadly virus in Bangladesh in the last 24 hours till 8 am on Sunday.

With the fresh ones, the death toll from the virus in the country reached 8,205 while the mortality rate stood at 1.52 percent, the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) said in a handout.

It said the daily Covid-19 infection rate in the country is now 2.35 percent.

Meanwhile, the new cases pushed up the national tally to 538,062.

Until this morning, 483,372 patients (89.84 percent of the total reported cases) have recovered.

So far, 3,749,012 samples, including 12,404 during the past 24 hours, have been tested.

Bangladesh reported its first Coronavirus cases on March 8 and the first death on March 18 last year.