Staff Reporter :
Bangladesh is seeing a troubling spike in Covid-19 cases for the last few days due mainly to people’s ignorance to follow health safety rules and their attendance in mass gathering.
Besides, administrative instructions have been issued across the country to avoid public gatherings, ensure the use of masks and vaccination as Covid infections are on the rise again.
The country on Thursday saw another 1,051 cases and six deaths from novel coronavirus in last 24 hours while it registered over 1,000 cases for two consecutive days as 1,018 infections were detected on Wednesday.
With the new figures, the tally of COVID-19 infections reached 5,54,156 and death toll 8,502.
The Directorate General of Health Services said this through a press release on Thursday afternoon.
“People are not following health guidelines after getting vaccinated. It’s inviting disaster,” said Health Minister Zahid Maleque.
Referring to the coronavirus infected people, he said the percentage of Covid-19 infection had gone down to 2 per cent in the country. Now, the infection has approached to 6 per cent.
“It’s a matter of great concern. We’ve become reckless after the mass vaccination drive. Even, we don’t use masks properly. We also show reluctance to maintain social distance. We’ve holding too many social functions, or gatherings. As a result, infection has increased again,” Zahid Maleque told journalists following a programme at the National Institute of Ophthalmology in Dhaka on Thursday.
The Health Minister said some steps have already been taken to prevent coronavirus infection. “I held a meeting with government and non-government officials at different levels of the country on Wednesday. Letters have also been sent to the district levels. The district committees have also been directed to take necessary steps. I asked them to limit various social programmes. They have also been asked to postpone the programmes which are not essential,” he said.
“People have started attending large gathering ignoring health safety rules. Even devotees are attending payers without mask and maintaining distance. Now we’re going to see the repercussions from people testing positive in large number, which also pushed up Covid positivity rate in the country, a public health expert told The New Nation on Thursday.
