COVID-19: Stampede-like situation at vaccination centres in Dhaka as people rush to get jabs

A stampede-like situation was seen at a COVID-19 vaccination centre on Sunday in the capital city of Bangladesh as people rushed to get their COVID-19 shot.

"Overcrowding, long queues, breach of safety protocol, and shortage of doses forced many to go back without taking the jab from centres during the mass vaccination drive in Dhaka," reported Dhaka Tribune.

Many vaccination centres ran out of doses two or three hours after the vaccination began. This was the second day of mass vaccination in the country.

The nationwide walk-in vaccination campaign is set to run for the next five days. The government plans to inoculate at least 3.2 million people through the ongoing campaign.

Volunteers struggled to cope with the huge number of vaccine aspirants, many of whom grew agitated when it became clear they would not get the shot, reported Dhaka Tribune.

Meanwhile, the publication said that many vaccine seekers in Dhaka claimed that people "favoured by local representatives" were prioritised for the allotted doses instead of the eligible citizens.

Bangladesh on Sunday registered 241 deaths from COVID-19 in 24 hours taking the number of new cases to 10,299 in the country.

So far, the country has reported 1,353,695 COVID-19 cases and 22,652 deaths.

( With inputs from ANI )