The government has geared up its nationwide vaccination drive to inoculate 70-80 percent people by March next, said Health Minister Zahid Maleque on Saturday.

“So far, 5 crore people have been vaccinated as the countrywide campaign is underway. Fifty percent people will be given the jabs by December and 70-80 percent by March next. We’ve already procured necessary vaccine jabs,” the minister said.

Zahid Maleque also announced a programme to bring children between 12-17 years of age under the vaccination programme soon.

Also read: Covid: Dhaka advocates an equal shot at recovery

He was speaking at a progamme arranged by district Puja Celebration Council in Sadar upazila, marking Durga Puja, the biggest religious festival of the Hindu community.

He urged the Hindu community to celebrate the festival maintaining health protocols.

On January 27, Prime Minister Hasina launched the Covid-19 vaccination programme at Kurmitola General Hospital through a videoconference.

The government rolled out a countrywide mass Covid-19 vaccination drive on February 7 vaccinating people aged 55 and above in the first phase.

Covid situation in Bangladesh

Bangladesh logged seven Covid-19 deaths, the lowest since March, in 24 hours till Friday morning, with 645 infections reported during this period.

The single-day daily death toll was the lowest since March 17 this year when the country recorded 11 Covid-related deaths.

The fresh cases were detected after 23,302 samples were tested, slightly decreasing the daily case positivity rate to 2.77 percent from Thursday’s 2.97 percent, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).

Also read: One million AstraZeneca vaccine doses to reach Dhaka from India today

With this, the daily case positivity rate in the country remained below 5 percent for the 15th consecutive day, which makes the country ready for mass unlocking.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), if the daily-case positivity rate remains at 5 percent or below for 14 days, it is considered safe for mass unlocking.

So far, 15,22,591 people have recovered from the deadly virus infection, the DGHS said.