Bangladesh is among the lowest COVID-19 testing countries in the world with an average 124 test per million. Not surprisingly, Bangladesh is only above the three worst-performing countries – North Korea, Nigeria and Myanmar. Nigeria conducted test for 35 people per million, Myanmar only tested 71 per million. However, data on the military ruled North Korea was not shown on the Worldometer site. The rate of testing per million people in neighbouring India is 243 while Pakistan’s rate is 419. Despite the social transmission of COVID-19, the test facilities is very limited and concentrated in urban centres while cacophony in treatment facilities is dangerous. The Worldmeter data showed that Spain’s testing rate per million is 19,896, in Germany 20,629, in Italy 20,577, in Canada 13,452, in South Korea 10,659, in the USA 10,815 and in the UK 6,783. The government before the outbreak expressed its satisfaction over preparedness and willingly missed its opportunity to increase capability to fight against the pandemic. Even, the government has continued ignoring the need for widespread testing of people to identify COVID-19 patients since its detection on March 8.
Health Minister Zahid Malik on Friday said that people are trying to hide themselves if they have infections, which is a cause for concern. However, news media’s version of test seekers trying to reach government hotline to get themselves screened contradicted the minister’s allegation that people were showing unwillingness to have tests. The government so far arranged 19 testing centres, most of them in early April. According to the IEDCR, the test centres tested merely 21,191. World Health Organisation suggests widespread tests while public health experts are campaigning for an increased number of tests, isolation of the positive patients alongside decreasing personal contact to prevent spread of the novel coronavirus. Experts suggested that 10,000 people should be tested on a daily basis now to get the real picture of COVID-19 prevalence.
We actually don’t know how prepared the government is. We see the government has also failed to take effective measures to keep the people at home during shutdown period.
