News Desk :
Health Minister Zahid Maleque has warned of a third wave of COVID-19 if people do not follow the current health rules.
“If there is a third wave, we will not be able to handle it,” Maleque said on Thursday during a discussion marking the National Nutrition Week, reports bdnews24.com
The first wave of the coronavirus was manageable, Maleque said. Daily death counts had decreased to five or seven a day and the number of new infections had fallen below 300-400, but “carelessness and lack of caution” led to a sudden spike in cases, Maleque said.
“Why are there suddenly 7,000 new cases and over 100 deaths a day? We must investigate this to ascertain how the coronavirus wave developed and who carried it.”
Health Minister Zahid Maleque briefs the media on Thursday, Mar 12, 2020 on the condition of the first three patients who tested positive for the novel coronavirus in Bangladesh. Photo: Mostafigur Rahman
The health minister voiced concerns about a third wave if measures were not taken to identify the causes of the second wave.
“We must ensure that a third wave does not occur. We moved freely and carelessly,” he said.
“We went to different places, but did not wear masks, nor did we maintain social distancing. That is why we have a second wave. If we continue in this way, there will be a third wave.”
“How many doctors can we throw at the problem? How many beds? How many more high-flow nasal cannulas? How much more oxygen?” Maleque said.
“We cannot increase the number of hospitals and hospital beds overnight. Despite that, we have scaled up from 2,500 beds to 7,000-8,000 beds. We are now able to handle ten times as many patients. But we cannot repeat this time and time again.”
Meanwhile, UNB adds: It will not be possible to increase the number of beds all too often to accommodate the growing Covid-19 patients, Health Minister Zahid Maleque said on Thursday.
“We’ve managed to tackle 10 times more patients this time as we raised the number of beds from 2,500 to 7,000 in a short period of time, but it’s not possible to do it so frequently,” the minister said.
Zahid Maleque came up with the remark while addressing a virtual discussion arranged on the occasion of National Nutrition Day.
To avoid the ‘third’ wave of the Coronavirus pandemic, people of the country must be more conscious, Zahid Maleque.
The second wave of Coronavirus hit the country as people failed to follow the health protocols properly, the minister said, adding: “We must become more aware to escape the third wave of the deadly virus.”
Currently, the second wave of Coronavirus is underway which is much deadlier compared to the first one, Maleque said.
“Now we must detect the cause behind the emergence of the second wave. We’ve restricted social functions, public gatherings and rallies to contain the virus,” he said.
The infection rate will come down if the restrictions are followed properly for a few days, he hoped.
Covid situation in Bangladesh
Ninety-eight more people died of Covid-19 in 24 hours until Thursday morning amid a sharp rise in the number of deaths from the deadly virus.
The virus also infected 4,014 others during the period, the Directorate General of Health Services said in a handout.
With the latest figure, the mortality rate remained at 1.46 percent while the infection rate declined to 14.63 percent from Wednesday’s 15.07 percent.
