Cold spell on though mercury rising

The cold spell continued for the third consecutive day yesterday, hitting people’s day-to-day life across the country. The northern and northeastern regions are the worst affected.

Flights and river communications were disrupted in some places due to dense fog. The sun was hardly visible in Dhaka, like many other parts of the country, on the day.

Due to foggy weather and cold wave, many people -- mostly children and the elderly -- are suffering from cold-related diseases.

The Bangladesh Meteorological Department yesterday recorded the lowest temperature at 10.1 degrees Celsius in Faridpur, while Dhaka experienced 12.2 degrees Celsius.  

Weather may remain dry with partly cloudy sky over the country, while moderate to thick fog may occur at places during midnight to this morning, the Met office said in its weather forecast.

Night and day temperatures may rise in the next 72 hours beginning from 12:00 noon yesterday, it said.

Yesterday’s other lows were recorded at 11.9 degrees Celsius in Rajshahi, 10.5 degrees in Pabna, 11.3 degrees in Dinajpur, 12 degrees both in Rangpur and Kurigram, 11.3 degrees in Panchagarh, 11.8 degrees in Nilphamari, 10.2 degrees in Jashore, and 10.4 degrees in Chuadanga.

Some 4,556 people, suffering from cold-related ailments, underwent treatment at hospitals countrywide in the last 24 hours until 8:00am yesterday, according to the control room of the Directorate General of Health Services.

Of them, 829 were admitted for acute respiratory infection, 1,735 for diarrhoea, and 1,992 for other ailments, including fever, eye, skin, dysentery, and jaundice.

Besides, at least six women are being treated at Rangpur Medical College Hospital. They suffered burns while trying to stay warm, sitting beside fires in open places in different districts under Rangpur division, our Dinajpur correspondent reports.

All of them were admitted in the last 48 hours until 12:00 noon yesterday, and they sustained 10 to 15 percent burns, said MA Hamid, on-duty doctor of the hospital’s burn and plastic surgery unit.

Our Pabna correspondent adds: 270 patients were admitted to Pabna General Hospital due to cold-related ailments in the last 24 hours until 1:00pm yesterday. 

Meanwhile, flight operations at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA) resumed at 9:30am yesterday after five and a half hours of disruption caused by dense fog, reports UNB.

Schedules of five international flights were disrupted.

Ferry services on Shimulia-Kathalbari and Paturia-Daulatdia routes in the Padma were halted due to thick fog. 

Ferries could not cross the Shimulia-Kathalbari route from 5:00am to 10:00am, reports our Munshiganj correspondent.

Eight ferries, with passengers and vehicles, were forced to anchor in the middle of the river, Shafiqul Islam, assistant general manager of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation at Shimulia, told The Daily Star.

Ferry services on the Paturia-Daulatdia route remained halted from 3:30am to 7:30am yesterday, adds our Manikganj correspondent.

The bone-chilling cold largely affected livelihoods of low-income people, especially the labourers, across the country.

Labourers, who were looking for work, were seen shivering with cold at Mirpur’s Pallabi labour market yesterday morning.

Prices of warm clothes have increased significantly in the city’s street markets.

“Prices of warm clothes have gone up three to four times than what they were before. It’s tough for me to buy those,” Mona Mia, an occasional rickshaw puller who came to buy such clothes for his daughter at Farmgate, told this newspaper.

Our correspondents from other districts also reported that daily lives in those areas came to an almost standstill due to the biting cold.

Around 12,000 drivers of rental motorcycles in six districts under Barishal division are passing hard days as passengers avoid journey by bike due to the ongoing cold wave, reports our Barishal correspondent.

Motorcycle is one of the most used vehicles for road communications in the rural area in Barishal division. 

Meanwhile, the shivering cold has made the lives of seven lakh ultra-poor tea workers in 156 tea gardens in Sylhet division miserable as there is an acute shortage of warm clothes, reports our Moulvibazar correspondent. 

Sreemangal Met office recorded the lowest temperature at 11.1 degrees Celsius there yesterday.

“Fog covers everywhere most of the time. We have been forced to stop working in the last few days, but we depend on daily incomes to buy food,” said Sudama Roy, a worker at Dakhchhara Tea Garden in Sreemangal.

“More than 1,200 people in Lakhai Tea Garden in Sreemangal are badly in need of warm clothes. But we could manage only 300 blankets for them,” said Md Arifuzzaman, a member of local charity Artoonad, which is distributing the warm clothes.

Talking to our Lalmonirhat correspondent, Rafiqul Islam, a farmer at a char land in the Teesta river in the district, said he went to his vegetables field yesterday morning, but could not stay long there due to the cold.

The local administration has distributed some warm clothes among the char people, said Sadar Upazila Nirbahi Officer Uttam Kumar Roy.