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Covid-19 slows slightly in Bangladesh


Published : 04 Sep 2020 09:24 PM | Updated : 07 Sep 2020 03:45 PM

Bangladesh’s rising coronavirus cases slowed down slightly in recent days, but the health ministry remained at “war-footing” to prevent any further waves.

The Directorate General of Health Services on Friday registered 1,929 new cases while the figure was 2,158 on Thursday, 2,582 on Wednesday, 1,950 on Tuesday and 2,174 on Monday.

The new cases were over 3,000 per day even a month ago with the daily positivity rate, out of the tested samples, over 20 percent. Now that rate has declined to around 14 percent to 17 percent.

The total number of confirmed cases stood at 321,615 while deaths 4,412 and recoveries 216,191.

Bangladesh Post talked with Health Secretary Md. Abdul Mannan, chairman of the government’s technical advisory committee on Covid-19 Prof Dr Mohammad Shahidullah, and the director of the government’s disease monitoring agency, IEDCR, Prof Tahmina Shirin, on Friday to understand the situation of the pandemic in the country since everything seems normal.

“You can easily understand the situation. But from our part, we are doing whatever necessary to prevent and control the pandemic. All pragmatic measures have been taken based on our socio-economic reality,” the health secretary said.

“We have even arranged a vaccine trial in our country so that we can get a vaccine once it’s approved,” he said.

“It seems the rising trend has slowed down. It’s now static. Cases are not rising for sure,” Prof Shahidullah said, “But there is no room of complacency”.

“We must adhere to the health rules strictly,” he said, insisting on wearing masks while going out, apart from maintaining physical distancing and washing hands with soap.

Bangladesh confirmed the first cases on March 8 and the first death on March 18. The WHO declared the disease pandemic on March 11.

However, with the instruction of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the health ministry swung into action immediately after detecting the first cases.

The government announced general holidays on March 24, even though the number of coronavirus cases was only 39 then. There was no official call for the ‘community transmission’ of the virus.

Still the government has decided to enforce a lockdown closing all schools, businesses and offices. The IEDCR intensified its efforts to detect and isolate new infections.

The historic Mujib Year – birth centenary of the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman – was also cancelled.

All those early steps have paid off, experts said as that intervention helped the country to slow down the spread of the virus. In the meantime, the government could prepare the health facilities.

Hospital beds have been increased with the diagnostic RT-PCR labs. On March 8 when the first three cases were identified, there was only one detection center at the IEDCR. Now it is expanded outside the capital with over 90 centers offering tests.

Oxygen supply facility has been expanded and the number of oxygen cylinders is now 13,011. The number of high flow nasal cannulas which are needed when the oxygen saturation level falls has been increased to 490. The country has 180 oxygen concentrators also.

“We are doing whatever we can. But we must say we are getting help from the people. People are cooperating with us. The whole nation is conscious. People are becoming aware by the day,” the health secretary said.

“And that’s why we could avert the massacre as what we have seen elsewhere in the world. We are a densely populated country. But still we could avoid a big explosion of the virus.”

The IEDCR director, Prof Shirin, said they kept their testing and tracing of cases continued. “We are not complacent. We continue to trace out cases. But the new challenge is people are not obeying the quarantine rule which is needed to prevent the spread of the infection.”

“Even offices are not allowing their staff to stay at home if someone at their home detected positive for the virus. That quarantine cannot be ensured in many cases. It’s a challenge and we need cooperation from all to overcome this challenge,” she said, adding that the number of new cases has “declined slightly”.

She, however, said people need to wear masks all the times when they are out.

“We noticed a tendency of lowering the mask while talking. In that case, there is no use of using masks. We need to keep it in place while talking. The mask must cover the mouth and nose,” Prof Shirin said.

Mass masking is also crucial as an IEDCR survey conducted with the icddr,b found that about 90 percent cases in Bangladesh were asymptomatic which means people were spreading the disease without knowing their own conditions.

Covid-19 symptoms include fever and cough, mostly.

“It’s a good idea to conduct a ‘Mask Week’ or ‘Mask Month’ for creating greater public awareness about proper use of masks,” Prof Shahidullah said when asked whether the technical committee can suggest any such campaign using NGOs, volunteers and the private sector.

“No doubt the daily positivity rate has declined. But it has to come down as low as 5 percent or 6 percent. Then we can consider that the infection rate has really declined,” he said.

“But we must wear masks. It’s very crucial to prevent the spread of the virus,” he said.

The WHO suggests cloth masks can give protection to the general people. The health ministry has set a standard for making that cloth-mask. The standard guideline is available at the website of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).