Possible Duration of Pandemic: DGHS boss says sorry for comment
Amid a barrage of criticism, the director general of the health services directorate yesterday apologised for his comments on the possible duration of the coronavirus pandemic.
"A confusion was created over the remarks of Prof Abul Kalam Azad, director general of the Directorate General of Health Services, made yesterday [on Thursday] during the daily bulletin. He is deeply regretful for it," said the DGHS in a statement.
It said the script of the DG's speech, which he was reading from during the online briefing, had been hastily prepared as the time of the briefing was approaching, and he couldn't review its contents carefully before going public.
During the daily briefing on Thursday, Azad said, "According to the experience of different countries of the world and observations of health scientists and public health experts, the coronavirus situation is not going to end in one, two or three months.
"It'll stay more than two, three years or longer. Though in our view, the magnitude of infection will lessen."
His remarks drew flak from different quarters with public health experts decrying it, saying that such a statement would create confusion and panic.
Earlier in the day yesterday, Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader joined in the criticism, asking the top DGHS officials to refrain from making "short-sighted and irresponsible" remarks.
"At a time when the government is working tirelessly to retain spirit among the people, the short-sighted and irresponsible remarks over the duration of coronavirus by some top officials of the health directorate is creating frustration," Quader said at a regular briefing at his residence yesterday.
"I ask them to refrain from making such short-sighted and uncoordinated speech. During these sensitive times, it is not right for someone responsible to make irresponsible comments," he added.
The DG's remarks came at a time when the country is grappling with surging Covid-19 cases and deaths with the caseloads crossed the grim milestone of 100,000 in just over three months after the authorities detected the first patient.
Yesterday, 45 people died and 3,243 tested positive in 24 hours till afternoon. This brought the death toll to 1,388 and the number of infections to 1,05,535.
Be-Nazir Ahmed, former director of disease control at the health ministry, said it is not possible to predict how long the novel coronavirus will stay in the country.
"If we make a six-month target and take all-out measures, it is possible to contain the infection much earlier," he added.
Prof Muzaherul Huq, former Southeast Asia regional director of World Health Organization, said if the people involved in Covid-19 management followed WHO guidelines properly and took actions on right time, then it would have been possible to control transmission within four months.
He said since Bangladesh does not have the capacity to carry out PCR tests on a massive scale, the antigen and antibody test could be fruitful.
"It takes only about 15 minutes and it is affordable. Through this, we can effectively find out infected persons and enclose them within a periphery," he said.
The experts suggest the government should implement the zoning system across the country immediately to contain the spread of the infection.
"Implementing the zoning system in a scattered way will not bear any fruit. If we can enforce a zoning system all over the country at once, then it is possible to contain the spread within four months," said Prof Muzaherul Huq.
YESTERDAY'S BRIEFING
A total of 15,045 samples were tested across the country in the 24 hours, said Prof Nasima Sultana, additional director general (administration) of DGHS, at yesterday's briefing.
She said they have so far carried out 5,82,584 tests.
Among the newly deceased, 32 were men and 13 women. Most of them were from Dhaka and Chattogram divisions.
Of them, one was aged between 11 and 20, three between 21 and 30, four between 31 and 40, 10 between 41 and 50, nine between 51 and 60, 11 between 61 and 70, four from 71 and 80, and the other three were aged between 81 and 90, Nasima added.
Meanwhile, 2,781 Covid-19 patients have recovered during the same period. The total number of recoveries has reached 42,945 and the current recovery rate is 40.69 percent, the DGHS official added.
She said 684 people were put under isolation in 24 hours till 2:30pm yesterday.
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