The situation in Chattogram, severely infected by coronavirus, is getting increasingly complicated with the passing of each day, despite various initiatives to control the pandemic, mainly for lack of coordination.
Currently, it takes more than a week or more of uncertainty for coronavirus test results to come out due to a clutter of samples.
Samples collection centers and isolation centers are being set up everywhere of which top officials in charge of epidemic control are not aware.
In Chattogram, an average of 1,200 samples is collected every day, but it is not possible to come up with more than seven to eight hundred results. At the moment, more than 5,000 samples are in stock at all four coronavirus testing laboratories. Without lobbying, it takes a lot of time, at times even more than a week to get the results.
Samples are being collected at least 10 places in Chattogram, and tests are being conducted in only four labs.
Nazrul Islam, join secretary of Press Club, and coordinator at the sample collection center at the Chattogram Press Club, jointly run by Chattogram City Corporation and an NGO, said only 30 samples are collected every day, adding, “People giving the samples are a lot, but there is no one to provide solutions.”
“Some fortunate and influential people can get their result by lobbying with higher authorities, but the rest of the people get their results even after being cured from infections,” he added.
The inevitable result of not increasing the number of laboratories in line with the growth of the sample collection centers is the increase in clutter. At Chattogram University, the largest testing center in the area was set up two weeks ago, but is not getting its full output due to various problems.
“Although 1900 samples were sent to Dhaka more than a week ago to reduce the clutter in Chattogram, the results of all samples have not been obtained as yet,’ said Dr. Ehsanul Haque Kajal, Head of Laboratory, at Chattogram Medical College Hospital. “We are now fighting with our own capacity.”
Chattogram Medical College Hospital lab is now the highest in sample testing having the ability to test near about three hundred a day, but hundreds of samples are now in stock as the lab cannot complete all samples brought every day,
Dr Ehsanul Haque said, “We sent about 1900 samples to Dhaka, they sent some results in a week, but some more results have not come. Of these 1900 samples, there are also some samples that were collected 10/12 days ago. But we cannot give reports to those people even after so long.”
Chattogram, main port city of the country, has around 6000 COVID-19 patients with the death toll at 140, only 120 Intensive Care Unit beds, only a few ventilators and high flow oxygen supply system. Most of them are in private hospitals that have remained almost closed since the pandemic started. Only three government hospitals, Chattogram Medical College Hospital, Chattogram General Hospital and Bangladesh Institute of Tropical and Infectious Diseases BITID are treating COVID-19 patients with a total of around only 400 beds.
Though there are more government and non-governmental initiatives including sample collection booths, Isolation Centers to control the epidemic, the suffering of the 200 to 250 patients being identified in Chattogang every day is not decreasing.
There needs to be more coordination among everyone involved in epidemic management, said ABM Azad, Chattogram Divisional Commissioner and coordinator of pandemic control initiatives in Chattogram Division. He added, considering the situation in Chattogram, there is a need to increase the number of tests as well as to ensure quick results.
A sophisticated private hospital has already started full-fledged coronavirus testing and treatment, while another a private hospital is preparing for the testing, informed ABM Azad, adding "it is being heard that many isolation centers and sample collection centers are set up in the city, but I know about only one isolation center and some sample collection centers set up by the Chattogram City Corporation.
Officials say, many samples from the newly-established collection centers are being destroyed, and the condition of some patients is worsening at the isolation centers due to poor management, inadequate medical facilities, doctors, nurses and health workers to deal with critical patients.
