Amid the growing Covid-19 cases, health experts fear that Bangladesh’s frontier districts await a serious health crisis as most hospitals and health complexes there are ill-equipped to cope with any worsening of the situation. Experts expressed their frustration as local administrations in different bordering districts are “buying time” in enforcing strict lockdowns and halting the inter-district transport services to control spread of the virus locally.
Covid cases are growing alarmingly in Chapainawabganj, Rajshahi, Satkhira, Khulna, Kushtia, Jashore, Naogaon and Natore since the last week of May apparently for the prevalence of the highly transmissible Indian variant. One person carrying the Indian variant can infect about 406 people in just one month. Though the government has already empowered local administrations to enforce lockdowns in the virus-affected districts, only Chapainawabganj has been put under lockdown so far.
In Natore, where the number of Covid patient is increasing, the district is witnessing nearly 30 per cent positivity rate. There is no RT-PCR lab for Covid test in the district. The number of ICU beds and ventilators will have to be increased in the district hospitals. Or else, a serious healthcare crisis will be created there and the fatality rate might go up and the Covid situation might go out of control.
The government is not focusing much on Covid impacts and the need for improvement of healthcare facilities. Rather it is propagating inflated tales of development. Nonexistence of an effective accountability system at every governance layer makes the citizens to suffer.
The government should focus on preventing the spread of the virus transmission to other areas from the bordering districts, enhancing the number of hospital beds, increasing treatment facilities, equipment, and ensuring an adequate supply of oxygen, high-flow nasal cannula and medicines at hospitals and Upazila health complexes in those areas.
