The government has swung into action and scaled up all efforts to prevent the spread of coronavirus after the death of a septuagenarian from the new virus – COVID-19. Health Minister Zahid Maleque on Wednesday said they would open coronavirus units in all divisional headquarters to ensure better services to the people.
He also asked the officials concerned to keep the Biswa Ijtema ground in Tongi, at the outskirts of Dhaka, ready for mass quarantine, if needed. The minister was chairing a coordination meeting at the secretariat. Prime Minister’s adviser for private sector Salman F Rahman was also present at the meeting. He announced to donate 6,000 specialised medical gowns to doctors.
The health minister said the coronavirus units at the divisional level apart from Dhaka – Barishal, Chattogram, Mymensingh, Khulna, Rajshahi, Rangpur, and Sylhet – would be opened soon. People will get all related information and services from those centers, he said. Those units will also help the government to monitor the situation.
The decision comes following the rising trend of confirmed coronavirus cases in Bangladesh. The disease monitoring agency, IEDCR, on Wednesday confirmed the first death in Bangladesh among the 14 infected. The government reported the first case on March 8. Director of the IEDCR Prof Meerjady Sabrina Flora said they will expand the testing facilities in a week under their direct supervision.
The World Health Organisation earlier on Tuesday urged countries in the region including Bangladesh to scale-up aggressive measures to prevent the virus since the number of cases was rising by the day. The IEDCR said the transmission in Bangladesh is still limited within the family members of the returnees from abroad. “There is no community transmission so far,” the IEDCR director said.
The government closed all schools till March 31 and made quarantine of the returnees from abroad compulsory. The health minister asked the district administrators, and police to strict maintain the rules. The IEDCR opened a facebook page - iedcr, COVID-19 Control Room – for disseminating information in social media.
The government also opened 17 hotline numbers. Those are: 333, 16263, 01550064901, 01550064902, 01550064903, 01550064904, 01550064905, 01401184551, 01401184554, 01401184555, 01401184556, 01401184559, 01401184560, 01401184563, 01401184568, 01927711784, 01927711785, 01937000011, and 01937110011.
According to the WHO, simple public health measures are critical. Practicing hand hygiene, covering cough and sneeze, and practicing social distancing cannot be emphasised enough, WHO regional director Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh said.
“This alone has the potential to substantially reduce transmission.” However, if community transmission does set in, countries would need to gear their responses to slow down transmission, as well as end outbreaks.
Emergency mechanism would then need to be further scaled up. A network of health facilities and hospitals for triage and surge would need to be activated to avoid overcrowding, according to the WHO. Self-initiated isolation by people with mild diseases would continue to be the most important community intervention to reduce the burden on health system and reduce virus transmission. Testing of all suspected cases, symptomatic contacts of probable and confirmed cases, would still be needed.
