Coronavirus: Four-level emergency plan in place
The government has finalised an emergency preparedness plan to tackle the possible spread of coronavirus in Bangladesh.
The plan is prepared based on four levels and the current level of emergency for the country is one, to meaning it has so far no confirmed coronavirus cases.
In this situation, the health department is keeping suspected coronavirus patients isolated and carrying out tests on them. All the hospitals in the country have been instructed to keep at least five isolated beds to treat suspected coronavirus patients, said Prof Abul Kalam Azad, director general of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
If the situation worsens, the level of emergency will increase and so will the preparedness, Kalam explained.
The government move comes as coronavirus continue to spread across the world, claiming lives every day.
In another development, the US State Department on Tuesday put Bangladesh and 24 other countries in a list of "high-priority countries" in the coronavirus fallout. It announced a commitment of $37 million in financing to help those countries, including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kenya, South Africa, Indonesia, Iraq, the Philippines, and Zambia.
Experts say Bangladesh faces risks after many of the country in this region have reported coronavirus cases. They said people from those countries were travelling to Bangladesh.
They also said the preparations in place did not seem adequate.
Speaking at a press conference in Keraniganj, on the outskirts of the capital, Chinese Ambassador to Bangladesh Li Jiming also said Bangladesh now faces risks of an outbreak of coronavirus.
He then claimed that only Chinese people were being screened at airports in Bangladesh although 95 percent of new coronavirus cases were being detected outside China.
According to WHO, more cases are being detected outside China, notably in Italy, Iran, South Korea and Japan.
"Screening only Chinese people for preventing coronavirus spread is unscientific," he said at the briefing organised by China Railway Group Limited at Jinjira. China Railway Group Limited and its subsidiaries are implementing Padma Multipurpose Bridge Project and Padma Bridge Rail Link Project.
Replying to a question, he said, "We are not quite satisfied with Bangladesh's policies [in this regard]."
Asked, airport sources said people coming from several other countries, like Iran and Japan, also face similar screening there.
Currently, there are only one thermal scanner and several hand-held infrared thermometers to detect any suspected case, an official at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka told The Daily Star.
The Chinese ambassador suggested ensuring a mechanism at all international ports to screen all inbound passengers and avoid gatherings.
He urged the Bangladeshi authorities to reconsider a decision of cancelling on arrival visas for Chinese nationals as the "situation has changed a lot". He also requested not to impose any restrictions on any Chinese products.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh has extended its on arrival visa restrictions for inbound passengers from Italy, South Korea, Iran and Japan. On February 2, similar restrictions were put in place for Chinese nationals to prevent the new virus from spreading into Bangladesh.
"No passenger from these countries would be allowed to enter the country without health clearance from the source countries," Prof Meerjady Sabrina Flora, director at the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR), told journalists at a regular briefing at her office today.
So far seven Bangladeshis -- five in Singapore, one in Italy and one in the UAE – have been found to be detected with the virus. Three of them in Singapore, however, have already been cured.
In the latest development, Iran confirmed 2,336 cases of novel coronavirus with 77 deaths, while the number of cases is 2,502 in Italy with 79 deaths, 293 in Japan with 12 deaths and 5,621 in South Korea with 33 deaths.
With its epicentre in China's Wuhan, COVID-19 (coronavirus) has already left more than 3,000 people dead, with the infection already spread to more than 80 countries. The World Health Organisation has raised its global alert level to very high for all countries.
Asked about any inadequacy in measures to prevent the virus from entering Bangladesh, government officials claimed their preparations were better than that in many countries. They said they were taking further preparations in this regard.
FOUR-LEVEL EMERGENCY PLAN
DGHS DG Prof Abul Kalam Azad admitted that Bangladesh faces risks of the virus, but claimed good preparations were in place.
Talking about the four-level emergency plan, he said the emergency level for Bangladesh was now one. If the situation deteriorates and the country has 10 confirmed coronavirus cases involving patients travelling from abroad, the level would be raised to two.
In that situation, all confirmed patients would be isolated and treated in hospitals.
The emergency level-3 means when the number of confirmed cases is more than 10 with some number of them being infected within the country. If that is the case, the DG said, the government would lockdown certain areas where infections would be reported.
Talking about level-4, he said it would come if the situation turned into an epidemic.
"In such a condition, local administration would lockdown more areas having high number of patients and quarantine the suspected cases," he told The Daily Star.
Also, local schools and public institutions, including schools and colleges, would be used as quarantine centres, while the isolation units of the hospitals would handle the severe cases.
Prof Azad said it was not necessary to admit all patients in hospitals as 82 percent cases are mild and can be treated at home.
He said the government has formed a 31-membered high-level committee, comprised of representatives from local and global organisations and led by the health minister, to determine the emergency levels.
Also, a 10-member district level committee, led by deputy commissioner, and another 10-member upazila level committee, led by Upazila Nirbahi Officer, have also been formed to implement the plan in case of emergency, Prof Azad said.
Prof Muzaherul Huq, founder of Public Health Foundation of Bangladesh, welcomed the government move, but said the most important thing would be to raise awareness among people.
He suggested that the government inform people about all its plans immediately so that they can take proper preparations.
"We need a massive emergency preparation. Even a single infection may pose a massive danger to the country," said Prof Huq, also a former regional adviser for the WHO.
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