Vaccination booths to be increased

People who have registered for Covid-19 vaccination will have to wait to be administered doses as the demand for inoculation is greater than the supply of vaccine.

Meerjady Sabrina Flora, additional director general of the Directorate of Health Services (DGHS), said those who have been waiting for confirmation text messages for vaccines will get it soon, but "everyone has to wait" as the supply of vaccine is lower compared to the number of people registered.

She made the remarks following a visit to the National Institute of Neuroscience Hospital in Dhaka with DGHS Director General Prof ABM Khurshid Alam.

"We have instructed [our officials concerned countrywide] to increase the number of booths in the existing vaccination centres. If it is not possible, they will set up sub-centres nearby," Flora said

As of yesterday noon, around 3.53 crore people registered for Covid-19 vaccines, whereas the government has a stock of only around one crore jabs.

Of the registered people, around 1.87 crore are waiting to receive the first dose.

So far, around 1.67 lakh people has received the first dose of Covid-19 vaccines and 65.75 lakh received both doses, according to the DGHS.

Bangladesh is expected to receive around 6.35 lakh, more AstraZeneca doses on August 28.

About the transmission of novel coronavirus, Prof Flora said, "We will not stop taking the preparations to contain the virus as the positivity rate is still above 16 percent [as of Saturday]."

4,804 NEW CASES, 139 DEAD IN 24 HOURS

At least 4,804 people tested positive and 139 Covid patients died across the country in the 24 hours preceding 8:00am yesterday, according to the DGHS.

The total number of confirmed cases rose to 14,61,998 and the total number of deaths to 25,282.

The previous day, a total of 3,991 people tested positive while 120 deaths were recorded.

The positivity rate, however, fell to 15.16 from 16.71 percent the previous day.

Of the dead yesterday, 72 were male and 67 female.