Dhaka, Aug. 19 -- The government has reopened its Surokkha web portal for COVID-19 vaccination after a 16-day shutdown over security reasons.

The shutdown spelled trouble for travellers who required vaccine certificates, along with those seeking registration for vaccination.

Abdullah Al Rahman, a programmer at the ICT Division, told http://bddnews24.com on Saturday that upgradation for the portal was carried out to ensure the security of such a massive database, which was created three years ago.

"As it has a huge database, upgrading the portal while keeping it open may cause files to go missing. This is why we shut it down," he said.

The Management Information System wing of the Directorate General of Health Services collects informa...