The total number of people vaccinated in Bangladesh accounts for only 4% of the country’s population
It is a disappointment to learn that, despite the vaccination campaign in Bangladesh having picked up pace over the last month or so, we continue to lag behind our neighbours in terms of proportion of the population vaccinated.
According to McKinsey & Company, an American management consultancy organization, the total number of people vaccinated in Bangladesh accounts for only 4% of the country’s population, compared to 90% vaccinated in Bhutan, 55% vaccinated in the Maldives, 23% in Sri Lanka, 13% in Nepal, 9% in India, and 6% in Pakistan.
Despite receiving widespread praise at the start of the nationwide vaccination campaign which began in February earlier this year, Bangladesh’s vaccination efforts have been marred by a lack of vaccines due to our failure to procure vaccine doses from multiple sources, resulting in the need to halt vaccine registration for months.
Unfortunately, even now, despite the authorities concerned having learned from previous oversights and doing a better job of vaccine procurement, demand in the country continues to outpace supply, and we continue to play catch-up.
Meanwhile, as has been stated again and again, vaccination of the population is the surest way out of this pandemic and, until we are able to do so, there is legitimate fear that more and more waves of this virus will continue to wreak havoc on both lives and livelihoods.
As such, we hope that Bangladesh sees no future delays in its vaccination campaigns, and does a better job of securing vaccine doses and administering them to our people, so as to ramp up the pace at which its people get vaccinated. This is the only way forward.
Leave a Comment