7 more die, 206 new cases in Bangladesh

Seven more people died of COVID-19 and 206 others were found infected with the novel coronavirus in Bangladesh in the two days until Friday 8:00am.

With the new figures, the deaths from the disease have risen to 27 and the number of infected people identified has hit 424, said the Directorate General of Health Services.

Among the deaths, six were reported on Friday and one was on Thursday.

Besides, 94 people were found positive for the virus on Friday and 112 on Thursday.

With the surge in infected patients, the number of COVID-19 cases for the first time topped 100 in a single day on Thursday.

On Wednesday, the figure was 54 while it was 41 on Tuesday, 35 on Monday, 18 on Sunday and 9 on Saturday.

As of Friday morning, at least 7,359 people were tested, including 1,184 in the previous 24 hours, with 424 found positive for the virus, said DGHS additional director general Sanya Tahmina while speaking at the daily online bulletin on COVID-19.

She said that 11,809 people were now in home quarantine, 792 in institutional quarantine and 152 suspected patients were in isolation.

Dhaka city has the highest number of COVID-19 patients so far, 233, and Narayanganj the second highest, 75, said Meerjady Sabrina Flora, director of the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research.

Of the Friday’s six dead, three died in the capital, two in Narayanganj and one in Patuakhali while the Thursday’s one died in the capital, she added.

Five of the Friday’s deceased were male and one was female and two of them were between  30 and 40 years, two between 50 and 60 years, one in his 70s and the other was 90 years old, she said.

Among the infected identified on Friday, four were below 10.

Besides, the infected included 29 aged 31–40, 16 aged 41–50 years, 14 aged 51–60 years, 12 aged 21–30 years, six aged 11–20 and 13 above 60.

Among the infected persons identified on Thursday, three were below 10, 25 between 21 and 30, 24 between 31 and 40, 23 between 51 and 60, 17 between 41 and 50, nine between 11 and 20 and 11 above 60.

Bangladesh confirmed its first coronavirus infections on March 8 and the first death from the infection on March 18.

The death rate from the infection in the county now stands at 6.36 per cent while the rate of infection among the cases tested is 5.76 per cent.

Speaking at the daily online bulletin on Thursday, health minister Zahid Maleque said, ‘We are getting more infected patients as we have widened our testing.’

‘We are now getting information about the prevalence of COVID-19 patients in our country,’ he said.

IEDCR director Meerjady said that many patients were being found in various districts, who had a history of travel to Narayanganj, she described a COVID-19 hotspot.

The health minister repeated the request for people to stay at home and undergo the test.

‘Stay at home to keep you and your family safe and have the test to know whether you are infected,’ he said.

The minister said that the government was preparing more hospital beds for COVID-19 patients.

He said that the country had 550 ventilators and 380 others were being procured.

Currently, 112 ICU beds and 7,693 isolation beds are dedicated to COVID-19 patients, said DGHS additional director general Sanya.

Zahid Maleque said that there were preparations going on to install 4,600 new isolation beds in the capital, including at an under-construction market of the Dhaka North City Corporation.

He asked the experts not to pass negative comments about the government’s efforts but to advise it to improve those.

State minister for disaster management Enamur Rahman, also the general secretary of Bangladesh Private Medical Colleges Association, joined the online bulletin on Thursday.

He said that 69 private medical colleges and hospitals were open round the clock to provide treatment to all types of patients, including COVID-19 ones.

He said that many people held the wrong idea that the private hospitals were now closed.

‘I’d like to assure the countrymen that we are beside you,’ he said.

Enamur came up with the reassurance at a time when numerous people were being denied treatment at various private facilities as doctors and other healthcare providers feared that the patients might have contracted COVID-19.

The association’s president Mubin Khan said that they would dedicate private medical college hospitals to treating COVID-19 patients if the health ministry wanted.

DGHS additional DG Sanya Tahmina said that there were now 4.98 lakh sets of personal protective equipment in the stock for doctors and other healthcare providers, adding that the government was facing a crisis of N95 masks.

Besides, 71,000 testing kits were now in the government’s disposal too, she said.