Bangladesh

Age limit for Covid-19 vaccine likely to be lowered to 18 Covid-19 Vaccine
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Age limit for Covid-19 vaccine likely to be lowered to 18

Bangladesh Live News | @banglalivenews | 15 Jul 2021, 08:42 pm

Dhaka, July 15: Health and Family Welfare Minister Zahid Maleque said the government was in the process of lowering the age limit for vaccination to 18 years to facilitate students, adding that the National Technical Advisory Committee on Covid-19 had already advised the government on the matter. The matter has also been discussed with the Prime Minister and a decision in this regard will be taken soon.

He was speaking at the inauguration of the new Covid-19 ICU and OPD (Outpatient Department Procedure) shed at Dhaka Medical College (DMC) Hospital on Thursday (July 15th), which was burnt in a fire accident in March. The event was organized at the auditorium of Bangladesh College of Physicians and Surgeons (BCPS).

The minister said, "Two million doses of vaccine have recently arrived from China. Apart from these, another 15 million vaccines will come from Beijing. AstraZeneca and Moderna vaccines will also come from the COVAX facility this month."

"Rural people are having problem with the vaccine registration. That's why we have planned to vaccinate them with national identity cards. It will be launched later," he said.

Director of DMEC Hospital Brigadier General Md. Nazmul Haque told reporters, "As you know, last March, a fire in our 14-bed Covid ICU burned down the unit and made it unusable. Later we were able to fully re-launch it after 3 months under the direction of the minister. You will be happy to know that it is being introduced as a state-of-the-art ICU. Antibacterial walls have been built to prevent the spread of germs."

"There used to be a 14-bed ICU here. Now we started with 13 beds. There is a bed for dialysis. We will start admitting patients here from Friday (July 16). After the fire accident, we have added another 10-bed ICU in the Corona unit of the Burn Hospital.

"We are inaugurating the OPD (Exterior) Shed here. Under the direction of the minister, the OPD shed will be made a corona vaccination center. As there is an oxygen line at the Corona Center, the vaccination center will be moved to the OPD. There is also a separate booth for people of the third sex to receive services," he added.

It may be mentioned that a fire broke out in the ICU of the corona unit of DMC Hospital on the morning of March 17 this year. The fire started from the high flow nasal canola in the 12th bed of the ICU. Several corona patients died in the incident. The ICU unit became unusable for patients due to burns.