The Bangladesh government has stopped on the spot registration for taking the COVID vaccine as hospitals and health centres witnessed a huge surge of people turning up to receive the shot in the last few days.

The government had extended the facility for on the spot registration for the vaccine to help people who find it difficult to register online. Health Minister Zahid Maleque said in Dhaka on Thursday that due to on the spot registration people who had registered online were facing difficulty.

After a slightly lukewarm beginning on 7th February, the nationwide vaccination programme in Bangladesh has picked up pace quickly. According to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), more than 2 lakh people took the COVID 19 vaccine on Thursday taking the total number of people vaccinated till now to over 5.42 lakh.

Initially, the government allowed people above the age of 55 to take the vaccine which was later reduced to 40 years.The vaccination drive is being conducted at 1005 health centres and hospitals across the country including 50 in Dhaka.Bangladesh started COVID 19 vaccination on February 7 on a national scale.

Bangladesh has signed an agreement with the Serum Institute of India (SII) for the purchase of 30 million doses of the Oxford University AstraZeneca vaccine. Out of it, 5 million doses arrived in Bangladesh last month. India also gifted 2 million doses of the vaccine to Bangladesh.