MOHAMMAD AL-MASUM MOLLA

Amid the Covid-19 pandemic raging throughout the best part of 2021, Bangladesh had to tackle myriad challenges to ensure vaccines for its citizens.

So far, over half the population received the first dose, and the government aims to administer a double dose for all eligible persons by June and a booster dose by the end of this year.

Government officials say they have now overcome the initial challenges, including smooth vaccine supply.

The government is also working to set up a vaccine plant to cut dependency on other countries, although progress has been slow.

“We are hopeful about setting up a vaccine plant next year for our own vaccine production,” Health Minister Zahid Maleque told The Daily Star recently.

He said initially there were challenges but health workers did a fantastic job inoculating around eight crore people with the first dose.

Alongside jabbing the adults, the government is now vaccinating children aged 12 and above, and has launched a booster dose campaign on a limited scale.

The booster dose coverage will soon be widened -- targeting vulnerable groups like the elderly and frontline workers, including medical professionals.

Currently, around 13 lakh doses are being administered every day, thanks to the supply from China’s Sinopharm and other sources.

But it was not as smooth when the mass inoculation was launched on February 7 last year mainly due to “vaccine nationalism”, misinformation and skepticism.

The government began the campaign with contract for three crore doses of AstraZeneca vaccines procured from Serum Institute of India, and commitments of 6.8 crore doses from Covax, a global initiative, by 2021.

But the campaign had to be postponed for around a month due to a sudden suspension of vaccine supply from Serum.

Serum stopped supply of the purchased vaccine after sending only 70 lakh doses in two consignments following the Indian government’s embargo on export in April 2021.

Covax’s pledge to supply vaccines to low-income countries also suffered a blow due to vaccine nationalism, a popular phrase used during the pandemic as a reference to wealthy governments signing agreements with manufacturers to secure supply for their own populations.

The Serum suspension forced the government to explore other sources. The campaign resumed after 1.5 crore doses of Sinopharm vaccine were purchased from China in June. The government procured another six crore doses of Sinopharm in August.