80 percent of country to be vaccinated by first quarter of 2022: Health minister

Eighty percent of the country will come under Covid-19 vaccination within the first quarter of 2022, Health Minister Zahid Maleque informed the parliament today.

The minister said Bangladesh will get 6.3 crore vaccines within December under the COVAX facilities.

"Besides, we will get seven crore doses of Johnson & Johnson vaccines -- set to arrive by the first quarter next year, and we will be able to vaccinate seven crore people with it," he added. 

In reply to opposition BNP and Jatiya Party MPs' criticism of the health ministry for its failure to ensure mass vaccination, the health minister said, around 25 lakh doses of Moderna vaccine will arrive in Bangladesh within July 2-3. Chinese vaccines will also arrive within that time.

"Besides, Bangladesh has inked an agreement with China's Sinopharm to get 1.5 crore vaccines," he said.

"In total, the country will have a total stock of 10 crore vaccines by December, and we will be able to inoculate five crore people," the minister said.

"Therefore, we will be able to vaccinate 80 percent of the people within the first quarter next year with that sum of vaccines," the health minister said.

BNP lawmakers -- Harunur Rashid, Rumeen Farhana, Mosharrof Hossain, Jatiya Party MPs -- Mujibul Haque Chunnu, Pir Fazlur Rahman, Rustom Ali Farazi and Shameem Haider Patwari while participating in the cut motion during the passage of the budget, strongly criticised the health minister for failure to handle the Covid-19 pandemic properly.

They also came down heavily on the minister for widespread corruption, irregularities, and mismanagement in the health sector.

The health minister, however, rejected these allegations and asked the lawmakers to raise specific allegations of corruption after proper verification.