The number of coronavirus patients is rising in Bangladesh with the deaths as the government has intensified testing of people who may have COVID-19. On Wednesday, the IEDCR confirmed 54 new cases in the last 24 hours when all the 16 laboratories in Bangladesh tested record 981 samples in a day.
Three patients who were under treatment died and none recovered within that period, director of the IEDCR Prof Meerjady Sabrina Flora said in the daily briefing. With that, the number of coronavirus patients stood at 218 in Bangladesh in a month of the first case detection on March 8. Of them 20 died and 33 went back home.
Additional Director General Prof Sanya Tahmina Jhora at the briefing said that no new recovery does not mean that the patients are in bad condition. “We didn’t find anyone negative in consecutive two tests within 24 hours, but they are in good condition,” she explained.
Earlier the highest ever single day case was 41 on Tuesday when they tested 792 samples.
The government’s disease monitoring agency, IEDCR, recorded patients from 15 districts as of Tuesday. On Wednesday, they found patients from five more districts -Kishoreganj, Nilphamari, Rajbari, Tangail and Narshigndi. “Still we see rise of patients in earlier detected areas (clusters). Others are mostly scattered cases,” director Prof Meerjady Sabrina Flora told Bangladesh Post.
“Those cases have link with those clusters,” she said, adding that they could establish the link of most of the cases through contact tracing. “Those (patients) who could not be linked are mostly healthcare workers because they can get from any patients in their chambers. And may be those patients were later identified as COVID-19 in any laboratories,” she said, when asked about the trend of the pandemic virus.
For example, she told Bangladesh Post, in Manikganj there were three cases. “But origin was from a person in Narayanganj. In our contact tracing, we found him in Manikganj Tabligh Jamaat. And then we found three cases from that Tabligh Jamaat,” she said. “Same thing happened in Cumilla where they got a patient who directly went there from the airport. Then again came back to Dhaka as a patient,” she said.
Of the new 54 cases, 39 were found from Dhaka city, 1 from the outskirt Keraniganj. The IEDCR is still getting patients from Narayanaganj which is cut off from the rest of the country in a complete lockdown. Of the new cases, seven were from Narayanaganj. Among the new areas, one patient was found in each Kishoreganj, Nilphamari, and Rajbari district, and two in each Tangail and Narshingdhi districts.
Of the new cases 33 are male and 21 female. The age ranges were five between 10 to 20, 15 between 21 and 30, 10 between 31 and 40, seven between 41 and 50, seven between 51 and 60, and 10 above 60 years of old. Of the total patients, 123 cases were found in Dhaka city alone followed by 46 in Narayanganj, 11 in Madaripur, five in Gaibandha, three each in Chattogram and Manikganj and two each in Tangail, Narshingdi, Jamalpur, and Jamalpur.
In Dhaka, the highest 10 patients were found in Tolarbagh areas followed by Dhanmondhi, Basabo and Wari with nine in each place. Eight patients were found in Mirpur-1, six each in Gulshan and Mohammadpur, five each in Lalbagh, Jatrabari and Uttara, three each in Jigatola, Showari Ghat, Bashundhara, two each in Green Road, Chawk Bazar, Babu Bazar, Islampur, Purana Paltan, Tejgoan, Mirpur-10, Mirpur-11, and Shah Al Bagh. Besides in many other areas single case was found.
Bashabo and Tolarbagh inside Dhaka, Narayanganj, Madaripur, and northern Gaibandha still remained the hotspots. The government asked people to contact hotline and mobile numbers – 16263; 333; 10655 and 01944333222 – to receive information and treatment facilities on Covid-19.
Across Bangladesh, 737 more people were sent to home quarantine in the past 24 hours and 16 to isolation. Some 139 are currently in institutional quarantine, according to Additional Director General Prof Samia Tahmina.
So far, 10157 people are currently in home and institutional quarantine across Bangladesh, she said, adding that they have 2,20,518 personal protective equipment (PPEs) in their stocks. The government earlier banned any religious congregations in the places of worship. Mosques have been directed to continue regular prayers with five persons only which means Imam, Muajjins and mosque staff.
On Friday Jumma prayer, only 10 persons will be allowed. The Tablig Jamaat has asked its followers to go back home as the government is enforcing social distancing by closing everything from offices to academic institutions and public transport.
