Bangladesh has started administering Covid-19 booster shots to senior citizens and frontline workers Tuesday after trial run was conducted for more than a week.
According to a notification issued by Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), people aged above 60-year, migrant workers, and front-line workers who have completed two doses of the Covid-19 vaccine and six months have passed since the second dose, will be eligible for the booster dose following text messages issued by their designated vaccination centres.
No one will be allowed to get the booster jabs without the SMS from the Surokkha website and for every five regular vaccine dose SMS, one booster dose SMS will be sent from a centre, it added.
The third dose will be given from the same center where the first two were taken from.
Depending on the vaccines at hand, AstraZeneca, Moderna, Pfizer covid-19 vaccines would be given as booster shots.
"Only those who have received both their vaccine doses will get the booster shots. They will get a text message from their designated vaccination centres," said Health Services Division Senior Secretary Lokman Hossain Miah on Monday.
When asked about the number of vaccination centres that will provide the jabs, he said, "For the time being, the number
will remain limited as the Surokkha app has not been updated yet."Initially, the Covid-19 booster shots are being administered within Dhaka. The initiative will gradually be expanded across the country.
Earlier, Health Minister Zahid Maleque said the registration through the Surokkha App for the booster doses will start at the end of December after updating the app.
As of Monday, 71,147,382 people got the first dose of Covid-19 vaccines in Bangladesh among whom 49,141,696 people got the both doses.
Some 54 people received the booster shots during the trial run, as per DGHS data.
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