March 29

Thousands of people have lined up in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka and elsewhere in the country to receive their second COVID-19 vaccine dose.

The Bangladeshi government launched a mega vaccination drive on Monday for administering second dose of the COVID-19 vaccines. The special drive came about a month after a rollout program to administer the first dose.

Bangladeshi Health Minister Zahid Maleque said the mass COVID-19 vaccination drive for administering second dose will continue till March 30.

He said some 22.5 million people are expected to receive their second dose during the drive.

Bangladesh has vaccinated around 127 million people with the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccines until Sunday. Approximately two-thirds of the vaccines administered were Chinese shots.

According to the Management Information System of Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), "A total of 126,968,718 people received the first dose of COVID-19 vaccines (including 81,280,391 Chinese vaccine doses) in the country as of March 27."

Also, nearly 100 million people have been vaccinated with two shots, with 50,163,728 receiving Sinopharm and 8,519,526 Sinovac as of Sunday, and nearly 8 million got a booster shot in the country.

Bangladesh began its COVID-19 vaccination drive in January last year to contain the COVID-19 pandemic that had spread across the country.

xinhua