All Covid-19 unit beds occupied in Bangladesh

Health authorities have said that all Covid beds in hospitals across the country were currently occupied and there was no scope to expand the capacity anytime soon.

The Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) made the statement while announcing 215 new deaths and 10,126 new cases in a span of 24 hour till Thursday 8:00am.

With the latest, Bangladesh’s total deaths related to the deadly virus now stand at 23,613, while the total number of identified cases now stand at 13,96,868.

Meanwhile, Health Minister Zahid Maleque said on Thursday that the government has been putting its best efforts to control the coronavirus situation in the country as hospitals have run out of available beds for Covid-19 patients.

He also said that the country’s positivity rate has been on the decline and efforts are being made to continue the downward trend.

The minister was speaking at a discussion, jointly organized by the Society of Medicine and CDD, at hotel InterContinental Dhaka.

Zahid also informed that vaccine was essential for all but the government has been prioritising inoculation of the aged population.

Talking to The Business Post, DNCC Covid-19 Dedicated Hospital Director Brig Gen AKM Nasir Uddin said that there were no available beds as the hospital is now flooded with patients.

“We can only provide a bed for a patient after an existing patient leaves,” he added.

Talking to The Business Post, DGHS spokesperson Robed Amin said as hospitals rarely give accurate data on available beds to the DGHS and in many cases, the data is not updated.

DGHS officials said that although the positivity rate had declined sharply, but the number of active patients still remains high.

Bangladesh witnessed a sharp rise in positive cases when Delta variant spread to rural areas. To combat the surge, the government enforced a 19-day lockdown that ended on August 10.