Children Won't Get Vaccine For Now: Health DG

Professor Dr ABM Khurshid Alam, Director General of Health Directorate, said that children under the age of 18 will not get coronavirus vaccines for now. This is still under discussion.

He also said that no decision has been taken to vaccinate the school students of the city corporation.

Khurshid Alam made the remarks after inspecting Pfizer's vaccine storage capabilities at the Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) building on Tuesday (October 5th). Earl R. Miller, the US Ambassador to Bangladesh, and other officials were present.

The director-general said Pfizer's vaccine is planned to be given in big divisional cities and district municipalities besides Dhaka this time. Training and preparation will be given soon.

"We are providing Pfizer vaccines in all the places where vaccines are available," he said. We have the minimum capacity to store vaccines in the ultra-cold chain. There will be no problem in preserving the way the vaccine is coming. We got 26 ultra-low freezers to store Pfizer vaccines at minus 70 degrees Celsius. More vaccines will come in the future.

Khurshid Alam said 82 lakh vaccines have been given on the Prime Minister's birthday. At present 5 lakh vaccines are being given daily. As such, 30 lakh vaccines are being given weekly and one crore 20 lakh vaccines are being given every month. Even so, owning one is still beyond the reach of the average person.

According to EPI, Pfizer has so far received 38,910 doses of the vaccine in the country. 78 lakh vaccines have the capacity to save.