The government’s disease monitoring agency, IEDCR, on Wednesday registered one more death from coronavirus, but did not find any new case in the last 24 hours. Director of IEDCR Professor Meerjady Sabrina Flora in an online briefing said the person who died was among the previous patients.
“He was first hospitalized in a local hospital on March 18. Later we transferred him to Kuwait Maitree Hospital in Dhaka on March 21. He died on Tuesday,” she said. “We did not find any new patient in the last 24 hours,” she said at the 12pm briefing, adding that they have continued testing samples collected from suspects.
With the latest information, the number of deaths related to COVID-19 stood at five. Number of cases remained the same, 39. The IEDCR so far tested 794 samples. Professor Flora urged all to maintain social distancing and follow government instructions. People have been asked to call 01944333222 and 10655 numbers for coronavirus related queries and services.
She, however, said they are not sure yet whether community transmission is happening in Bangladesh. “We need to have solid evidence for that. Because once we say its community transmission, then we’ll have to produce details to the World Health Organisation justifying that”.
She, however, said community transmission at ‘limited scale’ might have taken place in an area. “We have confined that area and tracing all the contacts of the persons infected from that area”. She urged all not to panic and confuse people. “Please follow the instructions we are providing. Stay at home, do not come out if its not urgent. Urgent means urgent,” she asserted.
Bangladesh deployed members of the armed forces to assist the local administration in maintaining the social distancing. People have been asked to wash hands frequently with soap for 20 seconds, not to touch face, mouth, nose, eyes with unwashed hands, and cover cough and sneezes to prevent the spread of the virus.
