The Serum Institute of India is expected to deliver the first consignment of COVID-19 vaccines to Bangladesh on January 25 or 26, Bangladesh Health Minister Zahid said at a press conference after a meeting on vaccination held at his office on Thursday.

Maleque told IANS, "The first shipment of vaccine is expected to arrive in the country from the Serum Institute on January 25 or 26. Preparations for storage and transportation have been completed. We have the capacity to store more than 6 lakh doses of vaccine in the storage facilities in each district and more than 2 lakh doses at the upazila level."

"A high-powered national committee under the Principal Secretary has been set up to ensure proper administration of the vaccine," said Maleque, adding that committees have also been formed at district and upazila level and the Health Ministry will extend all possible support to the committees.

"As many as 42,000 workers, including technologists, nurses, midwives and volunteers, are being trained on the vaccination process," he said.

Talking about registrations for vaccines, Maleque said, "For the effective roll-out of the vaccination drive, an app is being made by the ICT Ministry. Candidates can register through the app following which they will receive information about the time and place for vaccination."

Meanwhile, recoveries outnumbered new Covid cases in Bangladesh on Thursday as 883 patients recovered in the last 24 hours, taking the total recoveries to 470,405, while 813 new cases to the country's Covid tally to 5,25,723. With 16 deaths in the past 24 hours, the country's Covid death toll mounted to 7,849.

As per the latest data released by the health department, the recovery rate has been reported to be 89.48 per cent while the mortality rate stands at 1.49 per cent.

As many as 16,608 samples were tested at 199 authorised labs across the country in the last 24 hours, yielding a positivity rate of 4.90 per cent.

(IANS)