After long 42 days the first Covid-19 case was detected in the country, the government on April 18 had formed a 17-member ‘national technical advisory committee’ comprising experts of different fields to find ways to improve the coronavirus health services. Interestingly, we’ve seen no activities of the committee in the last nine days and even didn’t hear of providing any technical advice to the government.
In particular, the people see no active role being played by them as expert advisers in respect of the fight against coronavirus. Fighting the disease is not a matter of whims but a matter of mainly medical specialists. No government spokesman announced of getting any recommendation or guideline from the committee till the date.
According to an official of Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR), a big number of hidden cases are now silently transmitting the fatal virus in different areas. As the IEDCR and other bodies are testing people only those have specific symptoms, a large number of possibly infected persons have to remain outside of its purview.
But we learn from the experts in the world about the disease that testing for all and tracing the affected people are vital for restraining spread of the disease which goes like wildfire.
This government is so much dominated by sycophantic lies that the information supplied by government has no reason to believe. So the people are not getting convincing information and no expert advice from the members of the expert committee.
Declaring continuation of lockdown is essentially a police decision to be enforced by the police. But the Prime Minister had come out to announce the fact with no political plans for making lockdown tolerable.
It is for everybody to see in horror that the government has not yet shown any urgency for reviving the health service system that suffered extreme negligence and also made worse by extensive corruption.
Still now we are uncertain about procuring testing kits and essential instruments for equipping the hospitals for offering kind treatment the corona patients need. To put it mildly our hospitals are not yet ready to accept the affected patients as there is no adequate intensive care facilities. The world view is — testing and tracing are of greatest importance to deal with the contamination of the disease. Mere lockdown is not fighting the disease.
It is a puzzle that the government had formed three experts’ bodies including a task force jointly with the armed forces. But none of the committees are visibly active. The task force should have been used to put muscle into the activities of the administration. There is no appreciable activity of the government administration which is at the breaking point. The police have been used as an all embracing force.
The problem is we have such a government which cannot work itself or allow others to help it. That is why we are unhappily saying that there is leadership crisis for running the government.
The government’s initiatives for capacity building by increasing labs and providing other medical equipment are also very poor in comparison to its vast need. There are people within the government who are both incompetent and intolerant.
As per Monday’s official statement, the total number of infected corona patients has reached 5,913 in Bangladesh. It’s believed that the number will be increased in many folds if it was possible to conduct widespread tests from urban to rural areas. Similarly, the number of death toll now stands at 152. Because of the absence of trust these figures are taken with a grain of salt.
What is really important is to know what steps are being taken to save the people who are alive and how to stop contracting others. Social distancing is not practiced and there is not enough campaign either to educate the masses how it is to be followed.
Already many people are crowded in streets of Dhaka, Chattogram and other cities protesting for not getting help and going hungry. They cannot be expected to die along with their children locked up at home. They want to get back to their jobs and earn their livelihood. They do not want to hear and obey lockdown restrictions. The government is not showing any understanding how to cope with the crisis.
WHO has cautioned about partial opening because social distancing is not easy to observe. There is pressure on the government so the decision was taken allowing partisan relaxation of the lockdown.
Some garment factories have opened up with limited workforce. The decision is very risky unless the government can enforce social distancing. The factory workers have complained about not getting their wages for the month of March. Though money was available as loan for the factory owners, there is mismanagement about who will get the jobs and who will not.
So unless the government can come to rescue the economy from devastation of the pandemic the crisis will be aggravated. Issuing directions without workable strategy formulated rationally, the whole nation will be in the turmoil of public wrath. The people with empty stomach know no law.
