Over 15 lakh doses of the Covid-19 vaccine that have remained unused since May will expire by August 6 as authorities have failed to administer the lifesaving vaccine amid people鈥檚 unwillingness to take the jab even though there is now a fresh rise in Covid-19 infections and deaths.
Vaccinators said that they were inspiring eligible people to take the free vaccine to help them develop immunity against the viral infection, but the public response was very frustrating.
On behalf of the government, the Expanded Programme on Immunization conducts Covid vaccination in the country down to the upazila health complex.
EPI programme manager Abul Fazal Md Shahabuddin Khan said that during April and May they distributed 17,16,900 doses of the coronavirus vaccine across the country. All the vaccines were from Pfizer.
Officials, however, could not specifically say how many doses of the supplied vaccine were administrated while earlier official data showed that 20,111 doses were administered in the past one year from July 2024.
Bangladesh Medical University鈥檚 former vice-chancellor and virologist Professor Nazrul Islam said that date-expired vaccine should not be administered.
He said that vaccine quality highly depended on preservation. The preservation of the vaccine at the upazila level remained a big issue.
鈥楾he effectiveness of this vaccine against the latest variant of Covid still needs research. But people should take vaccine,鈥� he said.
On June 11, the Directorate General of Health Services warned people against the rise of the new Covid omicron sub-variants such as XFG and NB 1.8.1 in the country which triggered a fresh wave of infections.
The health service issued an 11-point directive again asking people to avoid public gathering, to reintroduce healthy practices, including the use of face masks and frequent hand washing among others.
Health Emergency Operation Centre and Control Room data, too, show that the average monthly number of jabs administered was 3,308 over the past 15 months.
Though officials thought that the number of vaccination had been increasing聽 little by little, they could not give figures to substantiate the claim.
According to EPI officials, they have collected over 30 lakh doses of Covid vaccine this year, of which 17 lakh doses were distributed across the country and they will expire between July 22 and August 6.
Nearly another 14 lakh doses kept in the EPI storage will expire by the first week of November, they said.
An EPI vaccination official in Chattogram said that they were given 74,760 doses of Covid vaccine on May 27 with the expiry date of August 6.
Less than 14,000 doses of the supplied vaccine were administrated in a month till Monday, said the official.
Chattogram is considered one of the hotspots for Covid infection and death.
Till July 3 from January 1 this year, Bangladesh recorded 23 Covid deaths and 617 infections. Of them, the highest 10 deaths, along with 201 infections, were recorded in Chattogram division.
Among others, eight deaths were recorded in Dhaka division, three in Khulna and two in Sylhet.
Directorate General of Health Services line director SM Abdullah-Al-Murad, also the member secretary of the Covid-19 Vaccine Management Taskforce Committee, said that people were negligent in receiving jabs though Covid cases and deaths were on the rise since the new variant started spreading.
鈥榃e could not create public awareness also for lack of funds. Development partners have already suspended donating money for Covid-19,鈥� he said.
The government has, he also said, enough vaccine at almost all vaccination centres across the country but people are not coming to take the jab.
However, public health experts said, it is also a responsibility of the agencies concerned to make people aware and inspire them to take the vaccine.
DGHS line director for Communicable Disease Control Md. Halimur Rashid said that taking or not taking the vaccine was people鈥檚 personal choice.
鈥榃e will, however, ask the EPI to take measures for creating awareness among the public to take the vaccine,鈥� he said.
Bangladesh began administering Covid-19 vaccines on January 27, 2021, with mass vaccination starting on February 7, 2021 after the Covid pandemic started. So far, eight vaccine brands were used in Bangladesh, including Pfizer, Oxford-AstraZeneca, Sinopharm, Moderna and Sinovac.
As of June 28, 2025, Bangladesh administrated a total of 36,69,03,614 doses of the Covid-19 vaccine. Of them, 15,09,26,134 jabs were first dose, 14,22,02,422 second dose, 6,86,17,142 first booster dose and 51,57,916 second booster dose.
According to the DGHS data, a total of 11,46,91,768 individuals have registered for the Covid vaccine as of June 28 against the total population of around 180 million.
At least, eight Covid cases were identified in the 24 hours till Thursday 8:00am while no death was recorded during the time, according to a DGHS press release issued on Thursday.
Bangladesh first detected Covid-19 in the country on March 8, 2020.
So far, 29,522 people have died of Covid-19 in the country, according to the official account, and the cumulative number of Covid patients has reached 20,52,162.
