Bangladesh has been reporting over 100 single-day deaths in a row due to Covid-19 for the last few days.
Health experts suggest a lot more strategies need to be implemented to slow down the infection of the virus which has now turned to an alarming situation.
The experts and officials fear that the country, with its alarming spike in caseloads and fatalities, is getting closer to encountering an unprecedented coronavirus situation.
The government has already enforced a weeklong strict lockdown that started on July 1, but the experts suggest that a lot more needs to be done besides this.
According to a recent report published by the World Health Organization (WHO) 40 districts of the country are at very high risk of Covid-19 transmission.
It is being assumed that the mass exodus of people right before the strict lockdown could put Dhaka in a much riskier position than it already is if this large number of people comes back from the high-risk zones after the lockdown is lifted. The Eid cattle markets will also heighten the risks of coronavirus as the cattle will be brought from different districts across the country.
In this situation, what lies ahead remains a matter of serious concern.
ShafiunShimul, one of the members of the Covid-19 International Modelling Consortium (CoMo Consortium) team and Associate professor of Health Economics at Dhaka University, told Bangladesh Post “Lockdown can flatten the curve of infections to an extent so that the health system doesn’t collapse but only lockdown cannot reduce the total number of infection. The way deaths and infections are surging in the country, especially in the districts outside Dhaka, is similar to that of India, which is very alarming indeed.”
CoMo Consortium, created by researchers at the University of Oxford, together with academic colleagues at Cornell University, is partnering with infectious disease modellers and other public health experts from more than 40 countries.
He said that our entire system is binary; in the sense that it’s either lockdown or nothing, but the ideal state should be in between.
“Our effort should be now to ensure vaccine and preventive measures. Wearing of masks should be ensured and restrictions should be enforced in the high-risk districts,” he added.
Prof Dr Mohammad Shahidullah, president of the National Technical Advisory Committee on Covid-19 told Bangladesh Post, “If we could enforce restriction on the movement of people till Eid, it could bring effective results. However, it might not be possible to enforce lockdown for such a long time considering the livelihoods of people, economy and other realistic circumstances”.
“In that case, if the lockdown is lifted, the health guidelines that includes wearing of masks, maintaining social distance and sanitizing or washing hands properly, should be strictly maintain to control the infection surge,” he suggested.
DrNazrul Islam, virologist and former vice-chancellor of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University echoed the same.
“People will eventually have to go back to their workplaces. But if we could maintain health protocols properly, the infection rate would not be this much. Although, restrictions have been enforced strictly many times, people are still not following health guidelines. Wearing masks could prevent infections from spreading to a large extent.”
He also emphasized on quarantine and isolating the infected patient to contain the transmission of Covid-19.
Be-Nazir Ahmed, former director (disease control) of Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) told Bangladesh Post that just lockdown is not the solution. In order to stop the infection, isolation is very important.
He said that the surging spike of delta variant should have been dealt with immediate response by enforcing strict lockdown in Chapainawabganj, the location where it all originated.
He urged that when someone tests positive for Covid-19, they must be isolated at any cost.
“The delta variant spread in India due to some superspreading events. The upcoming Eid-ul-Azha could turn into a superspreading event, due to the movement of people before and after it,” he added.