ED: The rollout is going strong -- let’s keep it up

As part of US donations and the regular supply under the Covax facility, Bangladesh will get 7.1 million doses of Pfizer and 1.8 million doses of Moderna vaccines. These vaccines will be shipped in the last quarter of this year. Considering the abysmal situation Bangladesh faced during the beginning of the year where a deal with India fell through due to the worsening Covid-19 situation in India itself, this has to be lauded as a marvellous comeback. 

Following India’s refusal to give us our deserved number of vaccines and the delta variant of Covid-19 spreading across the region, Bangladesh went into a prolonged lockdown starting the beginning of April, and the daily infection and death toll soon increased to match this dire situation.  

But both of these indicators are under control now, for the most part. While some of that can be attributed to the lockdowns, these indicators only started going down once the government initiated a mass vaccination drive starting in July. To accomplish this, not only was the government able to make deals with various nations, and diversify our supply chain in the process, but was also able to set up efficient vaccination centres on a short notice -- an accomplishment that is not to be taken likely.  

All in all, the efforts on part of the authorities concerned when it comes to vaccination have been praiseworthy, and this latest news regarding vaccine procurement only confirms that. But now, we need to keep that ball rolling. 

When it comes to Covid-19, it has become clear that vaccines are the only way out. Therefore, if we want to avoid long term economic and humanitarian consequences, the vaccine rollout will have to steadily continue, until life returns to normal.