The Institute of Epidemiology, Diseases Control and Research (IEDCR) on Wednesday said that two of the three coronavirus patients have been cured and will be released from the hospital soon, and the other is on the way to make recovery.
The government’s disease monitoring arm on March 8 announced the first three cases in Bangladesh including two persons who returned from Italy. The other one is a family member of one of them.
“Two of the three people (with coronavirus or COVID-19) tested negative in a retest conducted on Tuesday. They’ll be discharged from the hospital soon,” Prof Flora said, sharing the good news at the daily briefing.
She said they are maintain the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) protocol to say a patient coronavirus free.
“We were testing them daily as per the directions of WHO, and did not find traces of coronavirus in two of them for two consecutive days. So, as per WHO, we can say they have been cured and would be discharged from hospital soon,” she explained.
She said the condition of the third patient is also good. “But he is still coronavirus positive. He is also expected to make recovery soon.”
She said the patients had little symptoms of the virus and were not in that serious condition.
“But as they were the first positive coronavirus cases in the country, we did not want to take any risk and rushed them to hospital,” she said, adding that they had quarantined all the persons who came to contacts of those patients.
She reiterated her call for self quarantine in case of any signs or symptoms of the virus.
“Though no new patients were found in the country, we have to stay alert. But there is no reason to be panicked,” she said, urging the recent foreign returnees to remain in self-quarantine for 14 days. “Do it for the sake of yourself, your loved ones, society and the country.”
The most common symptoms of COVID-19 are fever, tiredness and dry cough. Some patients may have aches and pains, nasal congestion, runny nose, sore throat or diarrhoea.
Most people (about 80 percent) recover from the disease without needing special treatment, according to the WHO.
Older people, and those with underlying medical problems like high blood pressure, heart problems or diabetes, are more likely to develop serious illness.
Viruses that affect the respiratory system enter the body through mucosal membranes which are found in the nose, oral cavity and lips. With poor hand hygiene, it is easy to acquire a viral infection this way.
So, experts ask people to wash hands with soap and cover cough and sneezing with tissue papers or handkerchief. People have also been asked to avoid touching eyes, nose and mouth with unwashed hands, and maintain at least 1 metre (3 feet) distance from anyone who is coughing or sneezing.
