Achieving herd immunity through a massive vaccination drive can be the best option for Bangladesh to get rid of the deadly Coronavirus as all the steps, including the lockdown, have failed to slow down its upsurge in the country, experts said. Though many people are believed to have developed antibodies through infections, Bangladesh is not on its way to achieving herd immunity as Covid’s new variants like South African one can dodge people’s that type of immune protection, according to the experts. Read After Coronavirus: Police adopts yoga for enhanced immunity to disease They think the government should focus mainly on collecting at least 25 crore doses of the vaccine from different sources to attain herd immunity. They also said though some studies have raised questions about the efficacy of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine against the South African variant, most studies suggest it can at least reduce the mortality and morbidity rates. Herd immunity is a concept based on the body's immune resistance to the spread of a deadly disease or virus and it can be attained in two ways -- naturally or through infections of the majority population and artificially or through vaccinating at least 70% of the population of a country. Read Are some Covid-19 vaccines more effective than others? Far away from herd immunity Talking to UNB, Prof Muzaherul Huq, a former adviser to WHO South-East Asia region, said Bangladesh is not moving towards attaining herd immunity for the lack of a strong vaccination drive. “Bangladesh is far away from achieving herd immunity as only around 55 lakh people have so far given the first dose of Covid vaccine. The official figure about the virus cases is only 6,73,594. We don’t know how many people here have the antibody. So, we’ve an option to vaccinate our majority people for attaining herd immunity,” he observed. Also read: Is Bangladesh ready to distribute a Covid-19 vaccine?

Two new studies give encouraging evidence that having COVID-19 may offer some protection against future infections. Researchers found that people who made antibodies to the coronavirus were much less likely to test positive again for up to six months and maybe longer.

The confirmed global coronavirus cases surpassed 24 million on Thursday, according to the latest tally from Johns Hopkins University (JHU).