Health Minister Zahid Malik on Friday said that he felt that television channels should air more entertainment programmes to help people confine themselves to their homes for the safety from coronavirus infection outside. He said that people are confined to the home and living a kind of imprisoned life and that it creates pressure on the mind. He hoped more entertainment programmes on television would help ease people’s mental pressure. The comment comes when the country enters the danger time for social infection due to lack of preparedness, coordination, lack of life-saving treatment and drugs, and the Minister is responsible according to the portfolio.
When the first world brought all public and private hospitals under a single regulation to contain COVID-19, Bangladesh’s Minister is opting for increasing entertainment content on television. When doctors and nurses are being infected, people are panicked, a growing number of people are starving, and irresponsible speech can be expressed by those who are not accountable to anyone. Thanks to the private sectors for coming up with medical support: Bashundhara group will turn a convention centre into a 2,000-bed hospital while some private medical college authorities announced to open their medical facilities for COVID-19 patients.
Within the last few days, it seems that each day there is double the number of cases seen on the previous day. Doubling time is only 24 hours. No one can say how long this will continue to reach a peak before declining. The government must align all resources to contain the pandemic by increasing the capacity of hospitals, bring all COVID-19 treatment hospitals under a single system, make sure of the availability of drugs, equipment for patients and healthcare workers as well, map infected people, steer up relief activities, strengthen awareness campaign to stay at home, and commit to social engineering for mental health and removal of stress. The war has compound fronts and requires physical and mental health experts, religious clerks and social leaders to work in coordination to win against the Coronavirus.
