People above 40 years will be eligible to take Covid booster shots as the government has lowered the minimum age limit for it, said Health Minister Zahid Maleque on Sunday. “We’ve nine crores of Covid vaccine doses in hand. The government has lowered the age limit for receiving Covid booster shots to 40 from 50. Some people have taken booster shots. So, the government has decided to lower the age limit to 40,” he said. The minister came up with the information at a press briefing at Mohakhali BCPS Auditorium in the morning over the overall Covid situation in Bangladesh. READ: COVID-19 vaccine booster drive is faltering in the US “We’ll bring all those above 12 under the vaccination programme. Earlier, we provided vaccines to school and college students but now all above 12, including the madrasah students, will be brought under the vaccination programme,” he said. Replying to a question about the vaccination process, the Health Minister said, “Those above 12 can get the vaccine when they’ll go to the vaccine centres. We won’t let anyone go unvaccinated.” Answering a question about vaccinating children above five years, the minister said, “We’ve had discussions with the World Health Organisation over the issue and they said they’ll let us know.” The government has taken a decision to give Johnson & Johnson vaccine to the floating population including day labourers  as one dose of the vaccine can prevent Covid-19, he said. “We have got some Johnson & Johnson vaccine doses from the US under COVAX facility and the vaccination will start soon,” he added. On January 20, some 3.36 lakh doses of J & J vaccine arrived in the country. On December 28 last year, Bangladesh officially began administering booster doses of a Covid-19 vaccine but "on a limited scale". Initially, citizens, aged above 60, received the booster doses of the Pfizer vaccine. On January 12, the Directorate General of Health Services’ (DGHS) instructed to administer Moderna vaccine instead of the Phfizer jabs as the third or booster dose at all vaccine centres across the country. On January 17, the government lowered the age limit for receiving the Covid booster dose up to 50. Covid situation in Bangladesh Bangladesh reported 21 more Covid-linked deaths with 10,378 fresh cases in 24 hours till Saturday morning. The daily positivity rate dropped to 31.10 per cent from highest-ever 33.37 per cent recorded on Friday after testing 33,373 samples during the period, according to the DGHS. The country logged its earlier highest daily positivity rate at 32.55% on July 24 last year reporting 6,780 cases and 195 deaths. READ: Booster shots needed against omicron, CDC studies show On Friday, Bangladesh reported 20 Covid-linked deaths with 15,440 fresh cases. The fresh numbers took the country’s total fatalities to 28,329 while the caseload mounted to 1,731,149. Meanwhile, the mortality rate further declined to 1.60 per cent. However, the recovery rate also declined to 88.18 per cent with the recovery of 1,109 more patients during the 24-hour period.

They say love can move mountains, but more often all around us, we see it move people - from their comfort zone, their home, where everything is familiar, and into the unknown. That is a step Australian Malcolm Arnold took almost 17 years ago, when he left his home town of Adelaide in South Australia, and moved to Khulna in Bangladesh. What brought him here was falling in love with a Bangladeshi NGO worker, Halima Begum. They got married in 2004 and settled in a rented house in Khulna’s Sonadanga residential area. READ: Australian, Japanese, EU, US envoys visit St Martin’s Island Malcolm who happens to be a painter, takes painting orders online. This Australian citizen is 74 years old and has two daughters in Adelaide and a brother. His first wife left him long ago. And he has been painting for over 45 years. His paintings have sold for anything between Tk 5000 to Tk 5 lakh. Malcolm has always lived selling his paintings but in the last two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic, sales have almost stopped. As a result, he is facing a bit of a financial crisis. Besides, he has been diagnosed with a block in his heart. He can't even stand to walk properly. Though Malcolm’s visa is valid till 2025 and he has assets, property in Adelaide he doesn't want to go there anymore. He has unconditional love for Halima and Bangladesh. He says he wants to live in Bangaldesh as long as he is alive. When the UNB correspondent visited the couple recently, they recounted their story of love and marriage. Malcolm and a few of his friends visited Bangladesh in February 2001. They had a goal to write about Bangladesh cricket and publish. During that tour, while they were visiting the Sundarbans, Malcolm met Halima Begum, then a field-level worker of World Vision in Mongla. READ: Australian envoy sees potentials for future bilateral cooperation “golden” Halima, now a 45-year old woman who works to make ends meet through sewing nowadays, said that 7-8 days after they met, Malcolm returned to Australia. But he kept writing letters to Halima.