Bangladesh is all set to set up five field hospitals to ensure healthcare services for Covid-19 patients following a recent spike in both new cases and deaths from the Delta variant across the country.
Over the last week, Bangladesh witnessed a daily average of 10,886 new cases and 192 deaths, especially from rural areas, from the deadly virus variant.
In its daily media brief, the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) confirmed that 8,772 new cases were identified after testing 27,884 samples in 613 laboratories across the country until 8:00am on Saturday.
Over the same period, Bangladesh recorded another 185 deaths from coronavirus.
With the latest, the total number of deaths from Covid-19 in the country stood at 16,189 while the total number of confirmed cases reached 10,09, 315.
The country’s positivity rate stood at 31.46 per cent on Saturday.
The rise in both deaths and new cases comes amid a country-wide ‘strict lockdown’ enforced by the government to contain the transmission of the virus.
Compared to the previous week, the fatality rate increased by 48.66 per cent and the infection rate rose by 37.54 per cent.
According to the DGHS statistics, 859 deaths and 53,118 new cases were recorded between June 27 and July 03, while 1,277 deaths and 73,059 new cases were recorded this week from July 04 and July 10.
After visiting a proposed field hospital site in the capital’s Shahbagh area on Saturday, Health Minister Zahid Maleque said 80 per cent of 16,000 covid-dedicated beds in the hospitals across the country have already been occupied and the country might soon run of available beds due to the recent spike in infections.
A field hospital is a temporary hospital or mobile medical unit created to tackle an emergency situation, such as pandemic or casualties from large conflicts.
While talking to reporters, the minister said the proposed field hospital at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University Convention Hall will have 1,200 covid-dedicated beds, including 400 ICU beds and 400 HDU beds.
He, however, did not elaborate on where the other field hospitals will be set up and when will they start attending patients.
“Many Covid patients from rural areas are being brought to Dhaka from treatment,” he said adding that most of these patients were being hospitalised after suffering 70 per cent lung damages from Covid-19.
He said that hundreds of patients rushed to Dhaka from villages in Khulna, Jessore, Rajshahi, Rangpur and Sylhet.
“The number of patients increased eightfold in a month,” he added.
The minister also said the government will appoint 4,000 physicians and 4,000 nurses to attend to patients at the field hospitals.
Although the government appointed 5,000 people to provide healthcare services to Covid-19 patients, the present manpower will not be able to attend to the rising number of new cases.
“We cannot turn the entire country into a hospital. We should stop the spread of the virus to save lives,” said Maleque requesting people to maintain strict health guidelines until vaccination.
He said the government plans to vaccinate 80 per cent of the total population within the shortest period of time by confirming 2.25 crore vaccine doses from different sources.
He also informed that World Health Organisation has confirmed six million vaccine doses under Covax, while the government confirmed the purchase of five million doses from China. Of which, 4.5 million doses have already reached the country and one million AstraZeneca vaccine will arrive by next month.
Maleque said although only 100 hospitals across the country have central oxygen supply, they did not face any oxygen shortage still now.
The government has increased the number of high-flow nasal cannula to 1,800 and oxygen consolatory to 2,500, he added.
Meanwhile, BSMMU’s former vice-chancellor and virologist Professor Nazrul Islam applauded the government decision to set up filed hospitals.
He, however, said all field hospitals should not be Dhaka-centric but placed in areas with high infection rate and provided with all essential equipment, including ICU, high-flow nasal cannula and sufficient oxygen supply.
“Management of a hospital is always a challenge,” he said.
He also emphasised on equipping hospitals in district and upazila level with modern machineries.
According to DGHS statistics, 5,755 patients recovered from the infection in a span of 24 hours till 8:00am Saturday.
With this, the total number of recovered patients in the country now stands at 8,68,139.
Among the dead, 121 were male and the rest female.
Of them, 172 died in hospitals, 12 at home and one on the way to the hospital.
The highest, 92 people were aged above 60; 51 people were aged between 51 and 60; 22 between 41 and 50; 13 between 31 and 40; five between 21 and 30; one between 11 and 20; and one under the age of 10.
Of the dead, Dhaka marks the highest with 70 people, 51 in Khulna, 20 in Rajshahi, 13 in Rajshahi, 10 in Barishal, seven in Sylhet, 11 in Rangpur and three in Mymensingh.
The positivity rate in Sylhet was found 60 per cent, 49.59 per cent in Rajshahi, 47.19 per cent in Faridpur while in Dhaka positivity rate was 28.99 per cent in last 24-hours.
