Death toll 27 as 6 more die
37 of 94 new Covid-19 cases are from Dhaka
Six more people died of novel coronavirus yesterday, the highest in a single day since the first confirmed case was reported in the country on March 8.
It took the total number of deaths from Covid-19 to 27, said the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR).
Another 94 people tested positive for the virus in 24 hours till 2:30pm yesterday, raising the number of confirmed cases to 424.
"With deep sorrow, we're saying that although the number of infected people came down from the previous day, six more people died in the last 24 hours," IEDCR Director Prof Meerjady Sabrina Flora told a press briefing via video conference from the capital yesterday.
The increase came after a day when the number of deaths had fallen to one, but the infections crossed a hundred for the first time in a single day.
Apart from the death, there remains a matter of concern as recovery of patients was not reported in 24 hours.
Some 33 patients have so far recovered.
During her regular press conference on Covid-19, Prof Flora said of the six deceased, all aged between 30 and 90, five were male and one was female. Three of them were from the capital, two from Narayanganj, and the other was from Patuakhali.
She added that among the 94 new patients, 37 are from Dhaka, 16 from Narayanganj, and the rest are from different other districts. "Five of them are from the capital's Jatrabari."
The IEDCR director said 1,184 samples were tested in the last 24 hours. Of those, 701 were from the capital, and 483 outside the capital.
So far, 7,359 tests have been conducted since January 28.
As part of measures to curb the spread of the virus, the government yesterday extended the ongoing countrywide shutdown until April 25.
The spread of the Covid-19 continued to put significant strain on the country's health system that lacks enough manpower and facilities to deal with the outbreak.
So far, 112 ICU beds have been prepared across the country for treating Covid-19 patients, Sanya Tahmina Jhora, additional director general at the Directorate General of Health Services, said at the briefing.
The instructions to fight coronavirus were changing quickly. As it is a novel form of the virus, it is still under lots of experiments, she said, urging all to have faith in the authorities.
Meanwhile,the burn unit at Dhaka Medical College Hospital is going to be another centre for treating Covid-19 patients.
The health and family welfare ministry yesterday issued a circular in this regard, stating that it is now needed to dedicate the unit for Covid-19 patients as the number of such patients is increasing.
The authorities have also been requested to shift the burn unit's patients to nearby Sheikh Hasina National Burn and Plastic Surgery Institute.
Samanta Lal Sen, chief coordinator of the institute, said they received an order.
"We will start shifting the patients tomorrow [today] and try to complete it within the day," he told The Daily Star yesterday.
There are over 500 inpatients in the unit every day against nearly 300 beds.
However, a number of doctors at the DMCH opposed the government decision, saying that DMCH is the premier hospital where patients from across the country were taken to.
"The hospital is overcrowded with patients. If any portion is dedicated for Covid-19 patients, the virus may spread," said a doctor, preferring anonymity.
Another doctor suggested that the government should reconsider the decision and build a temporary hospital or dedicate the whole hospital for Covid-19 patients.
A health ministry official told this newspaper that they would use the burn unit if the existing dedicated hospitals for Covid-19 patients were overflowed with patients.
He said some doctors were opposing the move as they thought they had to treat the Covid-19 patients.