December 7, 2024, 2:30 am


Staff Correspondent

Published:
2022-06-28 07:48:07 BdST

Showing birth certificateChildren aged 5-12 to get Pfizer Covid vaccine


The Bangladesh government will use Pfizer-BioNTech's coronavirus vaccine to immunise children aged 5 to 12.

After a successful campaign to vaccinate adults and children aged above 12 years old, the drive to inoculate the younger children will begin once the doses are available.

Registration on the Surokkha platform will be necessary for the vaccination of the younger children. Birth certificate will be required for registration.

Meerjady Sabrina Flora, an additional director general at the Directorate General of Health Services who heads the National Vaccine Deployment Committee, said on Monday they were preparing for the drive.

"We haven't fixed a date as we haven't got the Pfizer doses for children yet. We also need special 0.2ml syringes for the children. We will fix a date once we get these."

Bangladesh launched the vaccination campaign in February 2021 at the peak of the pandemic. Initially, citizens above 60 years old and those on the frontline of the fight against Covid-19 got the vaccines.

The age for vaccines was lowered gradually to 18 years. Students aged 12 to 17 also got the vaccines. All the vaccines were free of cost.  

According to the government, nearly 129 million people got the first dose of the vaccines until Sunday. Among them, more than 119 million also got the second dose. The government administered over 16 million booster shots.

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