The Covid-19 vaccination programme began this morning (Feb 7) across the country with a target to inoculate 3.5 million people in the first phase.

Health Minister Zahid Maleque inaugurated the vaccination campaign through video conferencing from the health directorate in the morning.

Some 2,400 teams are working in 1,005 hospitals under the vaccination programme, DGHS said.

A total of 204 teams are facilitating the vaccination in 50 hospitals in the capital and 2,196 teams are carrying out the job in 955 hospitals outside Dhaka.

Some 7,344 vaccination teams are operating the vaccination programme across the country.

According to the DGHS, around 3.5 lakh people registered for vaccine till Saturday evening.

People who registered for vaccine received text messages Saturday night confirming the date and centre for their vaccination.

The front-liners will receive the vaccine in the first phase while people under 18 and pregnant mothers will not be given the vaccine.

The vaccine seekers can also register physically visiting the vaccine centres across the country, the DGHS sources said.

The country now has a stock of 7 million doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca (Covishield) vaccine, of which the government procured 5 million doses from Serum Institute of India and the rest were gifted by the Indian government.

Two doses of the Covishield vaccine will be given to each vaccine recipient in an eight-week interval.

At least 100 people will be vaccinated daily from each vaccine centre across the country, the DGHS sources said.