Health Minister Zahid Maleque received the vaccine this morning (Feb 7) at Sheikh Russel National Gastroliver Institute and Hospital vaccination centre in Dhaka.

The minister received the vaccine around 11:30am. 

Later, Environment, Forests and Climate Change Minister Md Shahab Uddin, Agriculture Minister Abdur Razzak, State Minister for Public Administration Farhad Hossain, Science and Technology Minister Yeafesh Osman, Fisheries and Animal Resources Minister Sham Rezaul Karim, director general (DG) of the Directorate General of Health Services, among others, received vaccines. 

Earlier in the day, Health Minister Zahid Maleque inaugurated the countrywide vaccination campaign through video conferencing from the health directorate in the morning.

Some 2,400 teams are working in 1,005 hospitals under the vaccination programme, DGHS said. A total of 204 teams are facilitating the vaccination in 50 hospitals in the capital and 2,196 teams are carrying out the job in 955 hospitals outside Dhaka.

Some 7,344 vaccination teams are operating the vaccination programme across the country. According to the DGHS, around 3.5 lakh people registered for vaccine till Saturday evening.

People who registered for vaccine received text messages Saturday night confirming the date and centre for their vaccination.

The front-liners will receive the vaccine in the first phase while people under 18 and pregnant mothers will not be given the vaccine.

The vaccine seekers can also register physically visiting the vaccine centres across the country, the DGHS sources said.

The country now has a stock of 7 million doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca (Covishield) vaccine, of which the government procured 5 million doses from Serum Institute of India and the rest were gifted by the Indian government.

BDST: 1315 HRS, FEB 07, 2021
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