No more mass Covid-19 vaccination campaigns: Health Minister

Deviating from previous stance, Health Minister Zahid Maleque today said mass Covid-19 vaccination campaigns will not be held in the country any more.

Although the minister earlier said that special mass vaccination campaigns will be held from time to time, today he said vaccines will be given only to those registered with the Surokkha app in the coming days.

"We don't have enough vaccines in hand to launch mass inoculation campaign. Whenever we get vaccines and whatever amount of doses, people will be called for vaccination accordingly," he told journalists at the Secretariat after a Cabinet meeting.

The minister said, "There were long queues for vaccine, although we did not want overcrowding. All the vaccines -- whether from US or China -- are effective. So, there is no need to rush."

The minister said Prime Minister has already asked them to see whether the gap between vaccine doses can be reduced. "We said that we will look into the issue upon availability of vaccines."

Maleque also said that on-the-spot registration for vaccine will not be offered anymore.

"Without registration, none will get vaccine. Over three and half crore people got registered and more than two crore received jabs. Registration will be done based on the amount of vaccine available," he said.

He said the vaccination campaign was taken to villages as rural people were not taking the jabs.