Covid-19: Bangladesh witnesses spike in deaths, infections since lifting shutdown
With the spike of deaths and infections, Bangladesh is now 10th in the world both in daily and weekly increase in new Covid-19 cases, WHO says
Bangladesh has been witnessing a spike in deaths from and cases of novel coronavirus in the last twelve days since lifting the shutdown.
During this period, around 34,370 cases and 445 deaths were reported.The total cases of infection were 47,153 on May 31 which rose to 81,523 till Friday, while the death toll was 650 that rose to 1095 till date.
With the spike in deaths and infections, Bangladesh is now 10th in the world both in daily and weekly increase in new Covid-19 cases, as per the World Health Organization Covid-19 report.
"Lifting the shutdown was not the right decision as people of our country cannot comply with the health rules. Now the Covid-19 cases are rising sharply," said Prof Dr Sultana Shahana Banu, head of the virology department of the Dhaka Medical College (DMC), also an infectious disease specialist.
The shutdown should be lifted onlywhen the infection rate starts decreasing, she added.
"Now, we are in phase four (human to human transmission) and the virus is highly infectious.So, social distancing is a must," Prof Sultana also said.
That's why lockdown is needed immediately, and it should be strictly implemented using law enforcement agencies, she said, adding that if the virus cannot find a living cell for a certain time it will be destroyed.
"If a decision is not made, it would be difficult to control the situation…more people will be infected and the country will lose more lives," she said.
Latin American country, Brazil, ranked thefirst in new infections with 32,913 cases in 24 hours.USA ranked second with 20,315 cases, neighbouring India ranked third with 9,996 cases and Pakistan became fifth with 5,834 cases.
Bangladesh on Friday recorded the highest Covid-19 infections and deaths in a day so far, with 3,471 new patients and 46 deaths in the last 24 hours (8am Thursday to 8am Friday).
Additional Director General of Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) Prof Dr Nasima Sultana made the disclosure during the regular bulletin.
Among the deaths, 37 were males while nine females. Of them, 19 from Dhaka, 11 from Chattogram, five from Rangpur, three each from Sylhet and Barishal, two each from Rajshahi and Mymensingh while one from Khulna, she said.
Among the diseased, 32 died in hospitals and 14 at home, Nasima added.
During the period, 502 people have recovered from the viral disease, taking the total recovery to 17,249.
According to the latest data by DGHS, 21.16 percent Covid-19 patients have recovered and 1.34 percent died. However, the infection rate was 21.71 percent in the last 24 hours.
Across the country, 15,990 samples were tested in 59 labs in the last 24 hours.
Globally, the virus has killed 424,084 people and 7,609,731 have been infected so far.