The nationwide daylong Covid-19 vaccination campaign began Tuesday morning to expedite the vaccination program to combat the outbreak of the deadly virus.

"The government has decided to observe the nationwide vaccination for expanding booster dose coverage across the country to prevent the spread of coronavirus," Health Minister Zahid Maleque told a press conference virtually at the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) on Monday.

Secretary of Health Service Division Dr Md Anwar Hossain Hawlader, Directorate General of Health Services Director General Prof Dr Abul Bashar Mohammad Khurshid Alam and senior officials of different relevant organizations, among others, attended the press conference.

"The people aged 18 and above will be eligible for receiving Covid-19 booster dose during the daylong campaign ...They (eligible people) will be inoculated booster dose after completing four months," he added.

The government has set a target to inoculate 7.5 million people under booster and second dose during the daylong drive, the minister added.

Maleque said as part of controlling the Covid-19 pandemic, the government has brought 76.05% of people under the first dose of vaccination coverage, 70.3% under the second dose and 17.9% people were brought under the booster dose coverage.

Bangladesh has been lauded globally for expansion of vaccination coverage which eventually has helped the countrymen to protect from the lethal virus, he said, adding:

"Five types of vaccines-- AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Sinopharm, Sinovac and Janssen-- are now available in the country. We have 27.6 million vaccines in stock."

The government has set up 16,181 vaccination centres across the country, the health minister said, adding, "As many as 623 are permanent vaccination centres while 15,558 are temporarily conducting the nationwide campaign." He said in order to inoculate targeted people, a total of 33,246 health workers will perform their duties during the campaign while some 49,869 volunteers will extend their services to make the vaccination drive a success.

Vaccination centres have been set at all public hospitals, specialized hospitals, health complexes, city corporations, pouroshovas, upazila and unions parishads.

As of July 18, a total of 279,768,106 doses of Covid-19 vaccines, including booster doses, were administered while the countrywide vaccination campaign was launched on February 7.

"A total of 129,438,055 people were administered the first dose of Covid-19 vaccine till Monday while 119,786,233 received the second dose across the country during the period," according to a data issued by the Directorate General of Health Services.

As many as 30,543,818 people received the booster doses of the vaccine to prevent the spread of the deadly virus, it added.

"A total of 33,788,634 students aged 12-17 years were vaccinated with first and second doses of the Covid-19 vaccines. Of them, 17,348,250 students received the first dose while 16,067,252 were immunized with the second dose of the jabs," the DGHS sources said.

Some 373,132 floating people have so far been inoculated across the country, the sources added.

"Till date, Bangladesh received over 300 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines... Either the country got the vaccine doses under Covax facilities or through purchase," the DGHS continued.

"The government has taken the decision to inoculate children aged between five and 12 years with Covid-19 vaccines after approval of the World Health Organization (WHO)... The country has a sufficient number of vaccines, which are eligible for the children," the health ministry sources said.

There are 22 million children aged between five and 12 in the country, the ministry said, adding: "Registration is mandatory for them through "Surokkha App" for receiving the vaccine."

On November 1, 2021, the vaccination campaign for students, aged between 12 and 17, began at eight centres in Dhaka city. Afterwards, the campaign has been expanded across the country.