Hospitals running out of Covid-19 beds

As the coronavirus situation shows no sign of improvement, hospitals treating Covid-19 patients are running out of beds, especially the Intensive Care Unit seats, in Dhaka and elsewhere in the country.

Health Minister Zahid Maleque said that 80 per cent beds at covid-dedicated hospitals are currently occupied.

“There will be a bed crisis (at the hospitals) if infection continues,” he told reporters after visiting a proposed field hospital at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University Hospital (BSMMU).

Bangladesh on Sunday recorded 228 deaths and 11,291 new cases in a 24-hour period. The death tally now stands at 19,274 while the number of confirmed cases shot up to 11,64,635. The country first reported coronavirus cases on March 8 last year.

The government is establishing five field hospitals to accommodate the huge number of patients. Maleque said that the proposed 1,200-bed field hospital at BSMMU would start operation in the next seven days.

In a regular press release, the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) said the daily infection rate was 30.04 per cent after testing 37,587 samples at 639 laboratories.

So far 9,98,973 patients have recovered – 10,584 of them in the last 24 hours.

Minister Maleque said that slowing down infection was the only way to tackle the crisis. He said that the government is enforcing a 14-day ‘strict lockdown’ to contain the virus infection.

But thousands of people continued to return to Dhaka on Sunday after celebrating Eid-ul-Azha ignoring health directives amid the nationwide lockdown.

Vaccination drive continues

Bangladesh continued its inoculation drive with four different vaccines.

So far 120,72,669 people have been vaccinated, according to government data.

Health Minister Maleque said the country has a capacity to store 80 million doses of vaccines. Bangladesh could manage 210 million doses from different sources to ensure vaccines for 80 per cent of the population by the first part of the next year.

“We are also increasing our vaccination capacity to 10 million doses a month,” he said.

No ICU beds at 11 hospitals

Out of 16 government hospitals treating covid patients in Dhaka metropolitan area, 11 have no ICU beds available.

Out of 393 general beds, only 40 were available, according to the DGHS.

Although the DGHS press release said the DNCC Dedicated Covid-19 Hospital at Mohakhali had 11 ICU beds available, staff at the hospital on Sunday said that there was no vacant ICU bed.

DGHS said that 10 ICU beds are available at three hospitals in Chattogram city out of 33 beds. However, among 539 normal beds, only 88 were vacant.

In Sylhet, no ICU bed was available at seven hospitals as all 22 ICU beds were occupied. Out of 430 normal beds, only 198 were available.

Dengue cases rise

Bangladesh, grappling to handle the pandemic, has been hit by rising cases of dengue. On Sunday, 105 dengue patients were detected.

Between July 1 and July 25, the country recorded 1,307 dengue cases. Three suspected dengue-related deaths have also been reported.

Health Minister Maleque said the government has decided to dedicate hospitals for treating dengue patients.

DGHS Director and spokesperson Nazmul Islam said that dengue outbreak amid the coronavirus crisis would be a double burden for the health sector.

He said raising public awareness was necessary for combating both dengue and coronavirus.