Covid-19 cases surging due to people’s overconfidence: Health Minister

The ongoing surge in Covid-19 cases happened because of people's overconfidence, Health Minister Zahid Maleque said today.

"Due to such situation, the infection rate has increased from one percent to 32 percent," he said at a meeting with owners of private hospitals and clinics.

"This is very alarming," he added.

Another reason behind the spike of Covid-19 cases is global, he said, adding that Covid-19 cases have been increasing in the entire world including Bangladesh.

But there is hope that transmission is currently waning in Europe and India, he said. The countries have recorded millions of Covid-19 cases but now the infection rate has been declining gradually, he added.

The Omicron variant symptoms might be mild but it is spreading rapidly.

The public hospitals are ready to give treatment to the Covid-19 patients. Around 25 percent of Dhaka's hospital beds are full with the infected patients. If the cases increase in this way, the demand for hospital beds would increase, the minister said.

Three crores of targeted people of the country could not be vaccinated, he informed. "We have discussed how we can bring them under the Covid-19 vaccination programme," Maleque said.

Around 85 percent of the patients who have been admitted to hospitals did not take Covid-19 vaccine, he said.

Also, 85 percent of those who have died of Covid-19 did not take vaccines either, he added.

The minister also called on the owners of private hospitals and clinics to come forward in the same way as they did before.