Booster doses to be available for citizens above 40

Staff Reporter
People above 40 years will be eligible to take Covid booster shots as the government has lowered the minimum age limit for it, said Health Minister Zahid Maleque on Sunday.
“We’ve nine crores of Covid vaccine doses in hand. The government has lowered the age limit for re-ceiving Covid booster shots to 40 from 50. Some people have taken booster shots. So, the government has decided to lower the age limit to 40,” he said.
The minister came up with the information at a press briefing at Mohakhali BCPS Auditorium in the morning over the overall Covid situation in Bangladesh.
“We’ll bring all those above 12 under the vaccination programme. Earlier, we provided vaccines to school and college students but now all above 12, including the madrasah students, will be brought under the vaccination program,” he said.
Replying to a question about the vaccination process, the Health Minister said, “Those above 12 can get the vaccine when they’ll go to the vaccine centres. We won’t let anyone go unvaccinated.”
Answering a question about vaccinating children above five years, the minister said, “We’ve had discus-sions with the World Health Organization over the issue and they said they’ll let us know.”
The government has taken a decision to give Johnson & Johnson vaccine to the floating population in-cluding day laborers as one dose of the vaccine can prevent Covid-19, he said.
“We have got some Johnson & Johnson vaccine doses from the US under COVAX facility and the vac-cination will start soon,” he added.