THE account of a private bank officer whose father died of Coronavirus at the age of 73 on Saturday has pointed fingers towards the poor state of the government preparedness to contain the pandemic. He said, a day after his father’s death from coronavirus or COVID-19 in Mirpur of Dhaka, they faced immense hassles to ensure proper treatment for the victim. They not only were denied by the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) but also failed to get treatment for his father at some other local hospitals. The elderly person, however, breathed his last at Delta Medical College and Hospital in Mirpur. But the hospital authorities had repeatedly insisted them to take back their patient after the IEDCR confirmed that he was COVID-19 positive. Earlier, the respondents on other side of the telephone of the much-talked-about IEDCR hotline number claimed that the virus had not spread at a mass level and there was nothing to worry about. No hospital is yet ready to provide healthcare of COVID-19 patient, while the policymakers and the Ministers have failed to realise the magnitude of the endemic. Being refused by at least three hospitals, they at last got success in admitting their father, who had inhalation problems and did not come in contact with any expatriate but used to go to the nearby mosque regularly for offering prayers.
The deceased was a retired professor of a government college, while his two other sons serve as first class government employees. The sorry state of the country’s medical treatment again has exposed by this incident. Side by side, it also gave light on the government’s negligence towards the virus outbreak despite getting three months for taking preparation. While the USA, UK, Canada, Netherlands, Italy, France, Germany, Spain, are struggling to treat the COVID-19 patients, our Health Minister audaciously said Bangladesh is ahead of any developed country in respect of preparation.
In fact, no hospital is ready to treat Corona affected people, testing kits are not available, intelligence reports are not yet ready to trace the affected people and there is no coordination among service providers.
