The army has been called into action to contain the spread of coronavirus infection by people flying into the country.
The government yesterday authorised Bangladesh Army to run two quarantine centres — Ashkona Hajj Camp near the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, and Rajuk Apartment Project near Diyabari of Uttara-18, said a statement of Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR).
All returnees from foreign countries would be screened by the health ministry officials at the airport and selected people would be handed over to the army for quarantine, the ISPR statement said.
The army would then arrange for transportation of people to the quarantine centres and oversee collection of their data digitally, their meal, accommodation, and treatment provisions and ensure other necessary amenities during the quarantine period, the statement read.
Health ministry and other ministries, organisations, departments, and forces concerned would support the army in this regard, the statement added.
The army asked people to call 01769013420 and 01769013350 for information regarding Ashkona Hajj Camp and 01769013090 and 01769013062 for Uttara Diyabari camp.
Meanwhile, with four new Covid-19 cases confirmed yesterday, the authorities have moved to collect more test kits and medical equipment to deal with the outbreak of the virus.
The Central Medical Store Depot (CMSD) has already collected another 1,000 test kits. Besides, the process of collecting one lakh more kits and five lakh personal protective equipment (PPE) is underway, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
“We have ramped up our measures to collect kits and PPE. We hope to get one lakh kits and five lakh PPE soon,” DGHS Director General Prof Abul Kalam Azad said at a press briefing yesterday.
He claimed that the transmission of the virus has not yet reached community level.
The latest move comes after the government’s slow response to the crisis drew criticism from general people and experts who said the authorities didn’t take the matter seriously.
The DGHS boss announced detection of three new cases at the briefing at the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) while the Civil Surgeon of Chuadanga confirmed another Covid-19 case.
With the four new infections, the total number of coronavirus cases in the country stands at 18.
Azad said of the four, three cases — a 22-year-old woman, a 32-year-old man and a 65-year-old man — are family members of an Italy returnee who recently left the country after a brief visit.
All three have been hospitalised, he said, adding that those who came into contact with them are being traced and quarantined.
At a press briefing at his office, Chuadanga Civil Surgeon ASM Maruf Hasan said the other infected person returned home from Italy on March 12 and has been kept in quarantine.
The IEDCR yesterday tested 25 new samples, taking the total number of tests to 366.
Nineteen coronavirus patients are now receiving treatment in isolation in hospitals while 42 are under institutional quarantine.
About test kits, the DG of the health directorate said Covid-19 test facilities would be extended to all divisions, except for Barishal, as it does not have labs to perform the tests.
Currently, the facility is limited only to the IEDCR due to a shortage of kits and bio-safety reasons, according to insiders.
Azad said 500 pieces of PPE were supplied to Dhaka Medical College Hospital and 10,000 to the Combined Medical Hospital in the capital.
He also urged those who returned home from abroad recently to remain in proper self-quarantine. “It is their responsibility not to expose their own family members and others to danger.”
Police have already been asked to take action against those returnees who are ignoring the instruction to remain in self-quarantine, mentioned Azad.
While Azad was briefing reporters, a section of doctors of public hospitals under the banner of Doctors for Health and Environment threatened to stop working unless they are provided with PPE.
Asked, Azad said, “We have started supplying PPE and other equipment to different hospitals.”
There have been media reports that doctors in many hospitals refused to treat patients with Covid-19 symptoms for not having PPE.
RAPID TEST KITS
The DGHS boss said many companies have offered to supply rapid test kits.
“But there is an issue of efficacy of these kits. Many of the kits sometimes give false results. We will send kits of some companies to WHO labs to test their efficacy. We will take decisions after getting the WHO’s feedback,” Azad said.
Meanwhile, the Directorate General of Drug Administration (DGDA) yesterday issued no objection certificate (NOC) to Gonoshasthaya Kendra, allowing it to import nine types of chemicals from the UK to produce rapid test kits.
Earlier, Gonoshasthaya announced it had developed a new kit that can detect a novel coronavirus case within minutes.
“The DGDA sat with the representatives from the IEDCR, the DGHS and other organisations today [yesterday] in this regard. Further directive has been sought from the health ministry,” Sabrina Alam, drug super of the DGDA told The Daily Star.
LEAVE CANCELLED
Leave of all health officials and staffers has been cancelled because of the coronavirus outbreak, Health Minister Zahid Maleque said a press conference yesterday.
“All the physicians, officials, nurses and other staffers concerned will not get any leave until further directive,” he said, reports UNB.
9 RETURNEES SENT TO HOSPITAL
The Dhaka airport authorities yesterday sent nine returnees from Oman, Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi Arabia to the Kuwait-Bangladesh Maitree Hospital as they had high fever.
Group Captain AHM Touhid-ul-Ahsan, director of Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, confirmed this to reporters.
On average, 7,000 people arrive at the airport every day, he said citing data collected over the last few days.
Source: The Daily Star