Surge in deaths rings alarm

As the country crossed a grim milestone of 100 daily Covid-19 deaths yesterday, health experts and officials have pointed at many coronavirus patients' negligence in taking their symptoms seriously and the delay in seeking medical care on time as reasons behind the sharp rise in fatalities.

Another contributing factor, they said, is inadequate treatment facilities for the critical patients.

As the Covid-19 patients seek hospital care, they find it difficult to get the critical care like ICUs and ventilators in the hospitals that have been struggling to tackle an ever-increasing number of patients for the past several weeks, they added.

Many people seem to be considering their mild discomfort not related to a possible Covid-19 infection, experts said.

By the time the patients respond to their illness and turn up at hospitals, their lung infections turn severe, ultimately resulting in deaths of many of them, particularly the elderly ones, before doctors get a chance to treat them properly, they said.

"Denial of Covid-19 is one of the main reasons for the high number of deaths. People cared little about the virus and the fear of the virus had almost vanished," ASM Alamgir, principal scientific officer at the IEDCR, told The Daily Star.

He also said a lack of knowledge of comorbidity and delay in seeking medical assistance or treatment were turning the situation worse and complex.

Eminent virologist Prof Dr Nazrul Islam, however, said the rising number of deaths indicated inadequacies in the treatment facilities and patient management system.

The government might have arranged healthcare facilities in the capital, but the picture in many districts is dismal, he said.

"There are no proper treatment facilities in 36 districts. Not all the patients are serious, but those who are seriously infected need ventilation support. Many districts have no such system," said Prof Nazrul, also a member of the national technical advisory committee on Covid-19.

"People are dying because of the lack of treatment," he said.

The record-setting surge of Covid-19 in Bangladesh is showing no signs of letting up as almost every day it is touching new heights of daily infections and death, despite the seven-day "strict lockdown".

Yesterday, 101 people, who had contracted the virus, were reported dead -- the first time that the reported daily death toll crossed the 100-mark in Bangladesh. Since the first fatality from the virus was announced on March 18 last year, the health directorate has so far reported 10,182 deaths in 395 days, averaging 25 deaths per day.

In the last 15 days, the health directorate recorded over 1,000 Covid-19 deaths. Previously, the lowest number of days taken for registering a thousand deaths were 23 when the country reached the 3,000-mark.

The worst part of the second wave of Covid-19 is that more patients with severe infections are coming to the hospitals and all of them need oxygen supply. Patients with mild and medium infections were also rushing to the hospitals, making it difficult for the authorities to provide treatment to all.

Muhammad Asaduzzaman, head of the department of critical care at Kuwait Bangladesh Friendship Hospital, painted a grim picture of the state of ICUs amid the increase in hospitalisation.

"Our ICU beds are occupied all the time and patients have to keep waiting for ICUs. Only after a patient dies does a bed fall vacant, and the new patient gets the chance. But in the meantime, the condition of the critical patients turns even more critical," he said.

He said if those patients could be brought to ICU earlier, the situation would have been better.

"People are reporting about their condition late and when they come to the emergency unit for treatment, their lungs are highly infected. So we have basically nothing to do. In Covid-19, the treatment is basically providing patients with oxygen," said Asaduzzaman, also an assistant professor.

"People need to be alert, not panicked. But people are panicked but not alert."

Prof Md Sayedur Rahman, chairman of pharmacology at BSMMU, said, "When infection rate is high, hospital admission goes up too. So, patients have to keep waiting for admission. That ultimately leads to delay in or inaccessibility to treatment, leading to the higher mortality and morbidity, some of which are preventable if treated on time."

He added, "Usually, the anticipated number of deaths may be projected by multiplying the weekly average of infection one week back with 1.4, which is the average fatality rate here in Bangladesh. So the more infection, the more death."

He said countries go for lockdown to give the healthcare workers and the facilities some breathing space to continue their fight against the disease with the available resources.

About the lockdown in Bangladesh, Prof Nazrul said it would reduce the infection rate, but not the number of deaths.

"If we can provide treatment to all the serious patients, only then the number of deaths will come down."