Staff Reporter :
Seven more coronavirus infected patients died while 31 more cases were detected in Bangladesh in the last 24 hours, Health Minister Zahid Malik said in an online press briefing in Dhaka on Sunday.
“The death toll has now reached 91, while a total of 2,456 people have so far been infected with the virus,” the minister said.
A total of 2,634 samples have been tested in the last 24 hours, he added.
Nine people have recovered during the same period, which brought the total number of recoveries to 75, the minister said.
The minister said that the patients in ICU are not found well.
“Eight patients out of total nine who had taken treatment through ventilator machine from ICU died so far,” the health minister said.
“But the Oxygen cylinders are found very helpful for the treatment of Covid-19 patients,” he said.
The minister said there are 10 thousand oxygen cylinders in stock, while the government ordered to collect 3500 oxygen cylinders and more.
Zahid Malik said that the areas in different districts which reported new cases recently had people coming from Dhaka and Narayanganj. He warned people to stay home strictly saying that the community transmission is happening this way.
“Lockdown not maintained properly. Some of the infected people are going in connection of others violating the social distancing systems. The community transmissions are increasing for those people,” the minister said.
The health miniser urged people to stay indoors, while criticising the local administration’s handling of the funeral of a man in Brahmanbaria on Saturday.
About Brahmanbaria’s mass gathering in a Namaz-e-janaza of Maulana Zubayer Ahmad Ansari, Nayeb-e-Amir of Bangladesh Khelafat Majlish, Zahid Maleque blamed the local administration for their failure to stop such incident and said it was gravely hazardous for public health.
Besides, Professor Dr Nasima Sultana, Additional Director General (administration) of Directorate General of Health Services, said during the briefing that in the last 24 hours the DGHS collected 2,749 samples and of those, 2,634 were tested.
She also said, 34 people were released from isolation centres during the same period.
He also suggested using community radio as a tool here to create mass awareness on social distancing and hygiene at the grassroots level.
Government assistance has yet to reach many remote areas of the country and availability of food is becoming an issue of concern, said Abul Haseeb Khan of NIRAPAD, adding that with no income, middle income group of poor are getting into the bracket of ultra-poor.
Independent Researcher Abdul Latif Khan said UN agencies and INGOs should monitor and provide technical assistance and direct funding to the national and local NGOs, adding that the government should involve local NGOs, micro-finance institutions and civil society organisations in implementing activities in the grassroots to tackle Covid-19 impacts.
Latif also suggested increased focus on ensuring stronger health system in the rural areas.
Rezaul Karim Chowdhury of COAST Trust moderated the press conference.
