New lockdown likely inevitable

Bangladesh is likely to witness a fresh lockdown shortly considering several factors including short supply of vaccines that has been stumbling mass inoculation campaign of the government and people's reluctance to some extent to follow the health guidelines mainly social distancing. 

These reasons may spur both fatalities and infections from the ongoing deadly Covid-19 virus in days to come, forcing the government to reinforce restrictions to grab the bull by the horns.      

At least two ministers--- Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader and State Minister for Public Administration Farhad Hossain and a number of experts have already hinted at redeployment of new lockdown to contain the virus. 

Restrictions and lockdowns will be imposed again if the Covid-19 infections rise in the country, said Farhad Hossain on Thursday. Speaking to the media in Dhaka he said they were considering two strategies— reinforcement of shutdown and opening of everything and making sure everyone wears a mask.

“Countries around the world, which are seeing jump in coronavirus cases, has imposed a lockdown. Australia has deployed troops and even imposed a curfew. The US also did the same. Because there’s no alternative to it,” added Farhad Hossain. 

Obaidul Quader on last Monday said that the strict lockdown was relaxed for the sake of people’s lives and livelihoods, but it might be imposed again if Covid situation worsened.

Meanwhile, growing enthusiasm for vaccination was viewed against the backdrop of short supply. According to reports from different vaccination centres, many people were seen returning home without being jabbed every day as the demand for vaccines far outstrips supply. Some have gone to the vaccination centres on two or three separate days but to little avail.

Crowds of people were seen in different centres of the capital. People were queuing up at some centres overnight to get vaccinated. Amid the hustle and bustle, many have been turned away in the end due to the lack of available doses.

Initially, Health Minister Zahid Maleque had announced a plan to vaccinate 10 million people in a week from Aug 7. The target was later revised down to 3.2 million by the health authorities for the pilot drive.

The health directorate has already announced plans to start another mass immunisation drive on Aug 14. Now, the campaign is shrouded in uncertainty and its fate depends on the availability of doses.

During the six days of the mass vaccination programme, 350 people are being vaccinated in each ward of the two city corporations of Dhaka. However, the crowds at the vaccination centres are several times bigger than the limit.

More than a thousand people thronged the ward commissioner office No. 2 in Mirpur as increased interest in Covid vaccines has rattled many mass and regular vaccination centres.

Hundreds of people were seen getting vaccinated against coronavirus at Pallabi Nagar Matrisadan. But after a while, the staff there told vaccine seekers waiting in line to leave as they only had 50 doses left.

Many people who did not receive text messages came to the centre with their vaccination cards. One of them, Palash Mahmud, said, “I registered on July 14. I haven't received the confirmation message yet. I heard that if you bring your vaccine card, you can get vaccinated even without receiving the SMS. But they are not vaccinating anyone without the message here. I don't know when I'll receive the SMS and get vaccinated.”

Israfil Islam, a health worker at the centre, said, “In the beginning, there wasn't as much of a rush for vaccines. It's hard to breathe now. People are streaming in but if we don't have an adequate number of doses, we won't be able to vaccinate everyone. ”

Brig Gen Zobaidur Rahman, chief health officer of Dhaka North City Corporation, confirmed that many people were returning home every day without getting vaccinated in different wards.

"Many people are rushing to get vaccinated. Again, many are going back without getting the shot. We are vaccinating 350 people in each ward every day as per the instructions of the health directorate.”

His Dhaka South counterpart Brig Gen Sharif Ahmed said the pressure was mounting on the authorities as the vaccine stocks were scarce compared to the number of city dwellers.

The health directorate said that despite public expectations, the resumption of the mass immunisation programme depended on the adequacy of the vaccine stocks.

Robed Amin, a spokesman for the directorate, said: "Whether we can actually run another campaign depends on the availability of vaccines. If there is enough doses, we may be able to conduct another drive.”

Bangladesh is currently administering vaccines developed by four companies -- Oxford-AstraZeneca, Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Sinopharm. The country has received 27.4 million doses of these vaccines from different sources so far.

These include 11.9 million AstraZeneca jabs, 5.5 million Moderna jabs, 9.8 million Sinopharm and 100,620 Pfizer doses.

Until Aug 10, the government has administered 19.7 million doses of the vaccines, with another 5.97 million in stock. But there isn't enough doses of the AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Moderna vaccines to give out the first doses. All hopes are now pinned on the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine. But vaccines in stock are not enough to meet the huge demand.

So far, out of the 9.8 million Sinopharm doses at the government's disposal, 6.8 million have been administered as first doses while more than 200,000 have received the second dose of the vaccine.

The government is now waiting to get more jabs to administer the second dose of the vaccine, having struck a deal with the Chinese company to buy 75 million shots.

Health Minister Zahid Maleqe said another 5.4 million vaccine doses would arrive by Aug 14.

The government plans to provide free vaccinations to 40 per cent of the country's 140 million population to curb infections and deaths during the pandemic.

Bangladesh, with a population of 164.7 million people, needs 131.8 million doses to vaccinate 40 percent of its population and 197.6 million doses to vaccinate 60 percent of its population, according to data from the Task Force on Covid-19 Vaccines, Therapeutics and Diagnostics for Developing Countries.