Reza Mahmud :
Increasing number of Covid-19 infections are running beyond the bordering districts creating serious challenges for the hospitals in the country to face.
The people of the country fear that shortage of medical services may increase number of deaths and sufferings, as many Covid patients suffered and died in ambulances after pursuing beds in different hospitals last year.
Data of the health authorities showed that infection rate increased by 27 per cent in this week compared with the last week.
Public health experts blamed the Indian variant for the deteriorated situation.
The Directorate General of Health Services data showed that about 15,172 patients were found in the last seven days against 11,928 in the previous week.
The cases have been increased to 27.20 pc in a week.
The infections in non-bordering districts also have increased.
In Faridpur district, far away from Indian border, found over 55 per cent infection rate. On Sunday, the country recorded 47 deaths from Covid-19 in the last 24 hours, the highest single-day death toll in the country in more than a month.
It was May 9 when it recorded more Covid-19 casualties of 56 deaths.
In this situation, public health experts are worried over the inadequate capacity of hospital facilities.
According to the DGHS, there are 11,972 general beds for corona patients in the country. Now there are 3,099 patients, with 8,873 empty beds. There are 1,135 ICUs, but at present there are 370 patients.
There are 23,364 oxygen cylinders in the country, 1,602 high flow nasal cannulas and 1,619 oxygen concentrators. There are shortage of necessary medical supports, including ICUs in most districts, making the health experts worried. When contacted, Professor Dr. Be-Nazir Ahmed, former Director of disease control of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare told The New Nation on Sunday, “The hospital and total health sector may not be able to give necessary medical services to the increasing number of Covid-19 patients.”
“In this situation, a well coordinated health management is very much necessary right now to make the medical services strong and smooth,” the Professor said.
He said, “Without coordinated hospital management, the fatalities may be increasing, and sufferings of the patients would be enormous.”
When contacted, Professor Dr. M. Muzaherul Huq, former Advisor of the World Health Organisation told The New Nation on Sunday, “With the rise of Covid infection it appears that our clinical management or available hospital care are not capable of combating the situation.” “To thwart the Indian variant which is spreading rapidly with infecting lungs, it has been necessary to quickly diagnose and start clinical management to save lives,” he said. The upazila health complexes in border areas should be equipped with all necessary diagnostic and clinical management.
All border district hospitals also to be equipped with required treatment facilities, including ICUs and ventilators, he stressed on.
When contacted, Professor Dr. Robed Amin, Spokesman of the DGHS told The New Nation on Sunday, “We have asked all hospitals in districts to increase bed and other facilities as per their capacity for preparing any situation.”
Replying to a query, he said it is not easy to increase ICU beds because it needs trained manpower, physicians and nurses.
“We are imparting training to manpower as per our plan in order to increase ICUs in hospitals across the country,” he said.
