'Vaccination campaign for school students to begin within a week'

New vaccinate campaign for school students aged 12 and above will start within a week.

Dhaka, Oct 12 :  A new campaign to vaccinate school students aged 12 and above will start within a week, said DGHS chief ABM Khurshid Alam on Tuesday.

“The inoculation drive for school children between the ages of 12 and 17 will start this week,” said the DG of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) while talking to reporters following an event at the health department.

He said 21 centres have been selected at the district and city corporation levels across the country  for this purpose.

“The Pfizer vaccine will be used for children,” he said, adding, “School authorities will provide us with the lists of their students. We’ll pass that onto the Surokkha app server afterwards.”

The DGHS head said jabs will initially be pushed to 50-100 selected children on trial basis.

“We run trials before giving any vaccine. Fifty to 100 children will be selected for this,” he said.

Earlier this month, Education Minister Dr Dipu Moni said preparations are underway to vaccinate school students who are above 12 years old.

On Sunday, the World Health Organization (WHO)  approved the vaccination of those who are under 18 years of age in Bangladesh, said Health Minister Zahid Maleque.

"I’ve met WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and he has given a nod to it [vaccination of those under 18] when we sought his advice on vaccination of students," he said.

The health minister said students between 12-17 years will be inoculated with US-produced Pfizer vaccine doses as it is suitable for them. “We’re preparing for that. We’ve 6 million doses of Pfizer vaccine in stocks; we’ll get another four million doses soon. We’ve no jab crisis now, reports UNB.