Bangladesh rolls out nationwide Covid-19 vaccination campaign

Bangladesh on Sunday began inoculating people nationwide against novel coronavirus, with the authorities calling on people to get their names registered for the vaccine.

A number of Supreme Court judges, politicians and government ministers were among the first recipients of the jab developed by Britain's AstraZeneca and Oxford University.

More than 2,400 health teams are administering the vaccine at 1,015 health facilities across Bangladesh, Health Minister Zahid Maleque as he kicked off the campaign in the capital, Dhaka.

He urged people to register. "The vaccine is safe, it has hardly any side effects, and those who were vaccinated earlier are in good health," Maleque, said referring to last month's dry-run of the campaign amongst front-line workers.

Nearly 350,000 people have so far registered online for the vaccine. The authorities have set a target of inoculating some 3.5 million people this month.

The government hoped more people to get their names registered as the campaign rolled out.

“It is a continious process, we hope more people will be interested,” said Zamil Ahmed, head of a public hospital in Dhaka.

Bangladesh, a country of 160 million people, aims to have 15 million people vaccinated until June as the South Asian country received 5 million doses from the Serum Institute of India as per an agreement signed in November to import 30 million doses of vaccine.

In addition, the Indian government gifted 2 million shots as part of its "neighbourhood first" policy.

Bangladesh has reported some 537,770 coronavirus cases, with 8,190 deaths, since the country saw its first cases in March last year.