State Minister for Foreign Affairs M Shahriar Alam inaugurated the campaign at the Sheikh Russel National Gastroliver Institute and Hospital in capital Dhaka.

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Addressing the event, Shahriar Alam said all the foreign diplomats in Bangladesh will get vaccinated at the National Gastroliver Institute on two or three days  every week.

“Bangladesh has around 1,200 diplomats and all of them will get vaccinated gradually. We’ve sought a list of foreign citizens working in different international organisations for vaccination. They can also get vaccinated at the Institute,” he said adding, “We thank Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina as she gave the permission for this event instantly.”

Many countries across the world have failed to launch any vaccination campaign in such a short time but in Bangladesh more than one lakh people have already been vaccinated as of Tuesday, Shahriar Alam said.

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Responding to a question from reporters, he said there is no scope of confusion over the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine as it has been produced after a long research in compliance with all international laws.

“All the diplomats who came here today are all as confident as we are for getting the doses of the Oxford vaccine,” Shahriar Alam added.

“But the Russian citizens who are working at the Ruppur Nuclear Power Plant have sought permission to get Russian vaccine ‘Sputnik V’. We’ve also facilitated it,” the state minister said.

Meanwhile, the government launched a countrywide mass Covid-19 vaccination drive on February 7.

The doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine that Bangladesh acquired from India’s Serum Institute have been sent to hospitals across the country to make the vaccination drive a success.

The government has trained physicians and nurses to carry out the vaccination drive. So far, top government officials, Cabinet members, judges, policemen, along with general people, have received the vaccine.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on February 8 instructed the authorities concerned to bring down the age limit of vaccine recipient s from 55 years to 40 to widen the drive.

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Once one receives the first dose, the second one has to be taken within 8 to 12 weeks.

Covid-19 situation in Bangladesh

Bangladesh’s Covid-19 fatalities rose to 8,239 on Wednesday after the country’s health authorities recorded 10 more coronavirus-related deaths in 24 hours till morning.

“The mortality rate is now 1.53 percent,” the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) said in a handout.

Meanwhile, 388 fresh cases were detected, pushing up the national tally to 539,153.

The daily detection rate fell to 2.59 percent while the current overall rate is 14.22 percent. So far, 3,792,241 samples, including 14,999 in the past 24 hours, have been tested.

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So far, 485,290 patients (90.01 percent) have recovered.

Bangladesh reported its first Coronavirus cases on March 8 and the first death on March 18.