Home ›› 22 Jan 2022 ›› Front
Bangladesh has increased the Covid-19 related healthcare facilities in a significant number though it is not enough for ensuring healthcare services for all if the number of patient continues to rise as per the current trend.
Comparing the present facilities with those in last year’s January, Bangladesh has extended 623 beds in Intensive Care Units (ICU), 1,303 pieces of High-Flow Nasal Cannula, 1,724 Oxygen Concentrators and 2,942 dedicated Covid beds in hospitals across the country.
The number of Covid-19 dedicated normal beds has increased from 10,495 to 13,437, ICU beds from 602 to 1,225, High-Flow Nasal Cannula from 716 to 2,019 and Oxygen Concentrators from 621 to 2,345, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
Additionally, 713 High Dependency Units and extended central oxygen supply have been added to 118 hospitals from 30 in the meantime for better treatment.
“We have no option to increase ICU beds immediately because we don’t have skilled manpower to operate them, but we can increase normal beds at emergency,” DGHS Additional Director General (Administration) Ahmedul Kabir told The Business Post on Tuesday.
Hospitals may go out of bed
Health Minister Zahid Maleque said the Covid-19 infection in Bangladesh is increasing at a high rate as it is breaking its previous day’s record.
“If the situation prevails, hospitals will struggle to ensure healthcare by the end of this month,” he said.
He urged the people to maintain health guidelines and take preventive measures.
AKM Nasir Uddin, director of the Dhaka North City Corporation Covid-dedicated Hospital, said the flow of patients continues to rise as daily around 10 patients are being admitted to the hospital though they have vacancies.
DGHS statistics shows that presently 98 government hospitals across the country are providing Covid-19 treatment dedicatedly.
Despite the fear that the hospitals will run out of bed, 85 per cent ICU beds are now vacant while 88 per cent HDU and 90 per cent normal beds are also remaining vacant so far, according to the DGHS.
Oxygen availability to depend on Indian supply
DGHS Additional Director General (Administration) Ahmedul Kabir said now they have capacity to supply 250 metric tonnes of oxygen daily which was 170 metric tonnes last year.
He said Bangladesh has to depend on the Indian suppliers for oxygen. If supply chain faces any problem, the country might face oxygen crisis too.
Hospitalisation less likely
Although infection continues to increase daily but the rate of hospitalisation will be less than the last year because of some positive interventions including vaccination, oral medicine.
“We will not face same difficulties as we did last year due to the surge of virus,” said Ahmedul Kabir.
He explained that people with mild-infection will take treatment at home and oral medicine will also help people recover without hassle. Some people have already grown anti-body naturally and some of others through vaccination.
“If any person with strong immunity is infected with Covid-19 further, they might not need to admit in hospital,” he said.
He added that those vaccinated need less hospitalisation as the fatality rate among them is also insignificant.
Vaccination in Bangladesh
The DGHS statistics shows that nearly nine crore people have received first dose of Covid-19 vaccine while 5.70 crore have received their second dose and nearly 7.5 lakh people have received third dose or booster dose till Tuesday.
Zahid Maleque urged the people to take vaccine as soon as possible to reduce the risk as the government has enough stock of vaccines.
The government has already declared that people without registration for vaccine may get dose just listing their names in vaccination centres.
Delta still taking high toll
Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) unveiled a study report on Tuesday where it found 20 per cent of those who tested Covid-19 positive in last one month were infected with the Omicron variant.
The report also stated that among those hospitalised all were infected with Delta.
Samples of 769 patients -- aged between nine months and 90 years -- from all divisions were analysed for the study.
Prof Dr Md Sharfuddin Ahmed while sharing the study findings said the study was conducted on those who tested Covid-19 positive across the country between June 29, 2021 and January 8 this year.
The study found that the death rate was high among patients who had comorbidities like cancer, diabetes, respiratory and heart problems.
The death risk was more among those aged 60 and above if they had tested positive for the second time.
On December 11, Bangladesh reported its first two cases of the Omicron variant in two members of the Bangladesh women’s cricket team.
