Bangladesh is among a group of 10 countries that have seen serious increases in Covid-19 cases after relaxing lockdowns too soon, according to an analysis of coronavirus data by the Guardian.
The other countries in the group are Germany, Ukraine, the US, Switzerland, France, Sweden, Iran, Indonesia, and Saudi Arabia. All of these 10 are among the 45 countries worst affected by the novel coronavirus.
According to the data, Bangladesh has seen a 12.9% increase in the number of infections as compared to last week, while Germany saw an increase of 36.7%, the US 24.6%, and Iran 6.6%.
On the other hand, the Guardian analysis found that Turkey, Belgium, Italy and Spain were among
countries where the number of infections continued to drop despite the relaxing of lockdowns.
Martin McKee, professor of European public health at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, told the Guardian: “We have seen some surges in the US States such as Arizona that had stabilised rates and even achieved small declines from the peak. Iran is also experiencing what appears to be a second peak, although there is continued debate about the role of increased testing.
“Easing of restrictions can be safe, providing the incidence of infection has been brought down to very low levels, well below what we have in the UK now, and there is a robust find, test, trace, isolate, and support system in place.”
Thomas Hale, associate professor of public policy at the Blavatnik School of Government and research lead for the Oxford Covid-19 government response tracker, said: “Countries that were hit earlier in Asia and Europe, and which managed to contain cases, have moved out of lockdown more quickly.
“We’ve also seen countries moving quickly out of lockdown when the economic costs become too great – for example, India. As our lockdown rollback checklist shows, many countries are now moving out of lockdown before meeting the WHO’s recommended conditions.”
