The government’s Covid-19 containment policy balancing life and livelihood has been proven ‘prudent’ as the infection rate continues to fall despite the withdrawal of total lockdown.
The significant fall of coronavirus deaths and infection rate have created a hope of defeating the deadly virus in Bangladesh soon.
The daily positivity rate continues to drop since the withdrawal of lockdown on August 11. Some analysts, however, predicted that the lockdown withdrawal decision could backfire.
On the contrary, the positivity rate dropped to 15.16 percent on Sunday, 11 days after the lifting of the Covid-19 lockdown. It was the lowest rate in recent weeks.
“The government has made the decision evidence-based and realistic,” Dr ASM Alamgir, principal scientific officer of IEDCR, which is the government’s disease monitoring agency, told Bangladesh Post.
Coronavirus pandemic is a global problem. Bangladesh is also affected due to it. But the country is in a better position than many other countries considering vaccine progress.
Over 15 million people have received at least one dose of vaccine so far since the beginning of the vaccination drive in February.
“Many people criticised (the government) when workers came back to Dhaka to join work on July 30 and 31. They predicted the cases will go up. But it did not happen,” Dr Alamgir said.
“Everything has been open since August 11. But the cases did not go up….rather declined on the contract to the prediction of some analysts in different media,” he said, adding that the incubation period of the delta variant is less than 14 days.
He, however, said that the positivity rate could decline further “if we all maintained health and hygiene rules such as wearing masks while going out.”
The delta variant is now dominant in Bangladesh.
Dr Alamgir said the delta variant of the virus replicates quickly. “So when someone shows signs and symptoms, all the members of the family must be tested as soon as possible and take all precautionary measures”.
“Our lockdown helped to contain the spread of the virus. And at the same time 1.5 crore people get the first dose. It will give them some kind of protection. So probably the worst is over,” he said.
Analysts say nonstop lockdowns can destroy livelihoods and squeeze the economy. They say the government must speed up the vaccination campaign as planned and ensure Covid-19 precautions such as wearing masks while going out.
Lockdown or no lockdown is also a debatable issue in India.
How to balance economic activities and the public health crisis will be the key, Prof. K. Srinath Reddy, President of the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), explained to IndiaSpend portal.
“So for example, how can we best manage closed work-spaces? As much as possible, people should work from home but where unavoidable, offices should stagger work-days and work timings,” he had said.
“Public transport should also be staggered, in the sense of limiting the number of people who can crowd on a bus or train, while increasing the number of public transport options available. Ventilation is key, and people should not drop their masks.”
Religious gatherings, political events and other similar mass gatherings should also be regulated, he suggested.
Europe, US and other developed countries have reopened almost everything following health guidelines.
So, raising awareness is a must to fight against the virus. Spreading fear, falsehood and propaganda must be stopped. Wearing masks, ensuring social distancing, and washing hands with soap and water must be ensured, Dr Alamgir said.
The official tally showed the virus killed 25,282 people and infected 1,461,998 so far in Bangladesh since March 8 in 2020 when the first three cases were identified.
The recovery count rose to 1,363,874 after another 8,453 patients were discharged from the hospitals during the past one day.
The health ministry statistics showed that of the people infected from the beginning 93.29 percent recovered, while 1.73 percent died.
