Reza Mahmud :
The government has identified 31 districts in the country as high-risk Corona areas owing to increasing infection rates in the country.
The districts are Dhaka, Munshiganj, Narsingdi, Narayanganj, Rajbari, Shariatpur, Gazipur, Faridpur, Madaripur, Kishoreganj and Tangail in Dhaka Division, Chittagong, Feni, Noakhali, Brahmanbaria, Chandpur, Lakshmipur, Cumilla and Cox’s Bazar in Chittagong Division, Rajshahi, Natore, Bogra and Naogaon in Rajshahi Division, Khulna, Narail and Jessore in Khulna Division, Rangpur and Nilphamari in Rangpur Division, Sylhet and Moulvibazar in Sylhet Division; and Barisal in Barisal Division.
The Directorate General of Health Services on Wednesday displayed the names of the districts in a press release.
The DGHS revealed the data amid covid-19 transmission cases are rising alarmingly across the country in recent days.
On Wednesday, the country recorded5,358 cases which is the highest number of infections in a single day since the emergence of the pandemic in March 8 last year.
At the same time, 52 new deaths from the fatal disease were also recorded across the country as the highest single-day fatalities in seven months.
The hospitals beds are found full of covid patients in the capital while the new infected persons are in acute struggle to get a bed vacant for getting admission.
The hospital authorities are also struggling to manage patients rush and queries for general and ICU beds.
In such circumstances, human health experts are urging the government to impose ‘Modified Lockdown’ in those coronavirus hotspots identified by the DGHS.
“We have to curb the deadly virurs upholding the livelihood of our people as the country is not developed enough to provide daily necessaries to the people’s door free of costing,” said eminent Virologist Professor Dr. Nazrul Islam, former Vice-Chancellor of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University.
He said, “The government should impose ‘Modified Lockdown’ on those 31 districts. The aspiration of such a lockdown would be curbing the transmissions by sharp detection through sample testing, keeping the infected persons in isolations until getting recover and keeping the families of those persons in home quarantine.”
“In this situation, the government with the social workers and politicians and neighbours should provide daily necessaries to those quarantined families so that they can easily stay in home and save all the society from transmission of the deadly virus,” he said.
The Professor also asked the government to provide every emergency treatment facilities of those areas for covid patients.
The virologist also Member of the National Technical Advisory Committee for Covid-19, said the western type lockdown is not viable for our society as there is a question of saving economy and the livelihood of the people.
Professor Dr. Abul Bashar Mohammed Khurshid Alam, DG of the DGHS failed to receive phone calls repeatedly for trying to the government’s plan on those identified hotspots.
Earlier, on Monday, DGHS Additional Director General Meerjady Sabrina Flora, in response to a query, said they noticed higher transmission of Covid-19 in six districts on March 13. Covid-19 was surging in 20 districts just a week later on March 20 and in 29 districts by March 24.
“This means Covid-19 is spreading fast across the country and there is no alternative to follow health rules to break the transmission chain,” Professor Flora said.
