Covid positivity rate doubles in 24hrs in Ctg
Covid-19 positivity rate reached 28 percent from 12.29 percent in Chattogram yesterday, doubling in only 24 hours.
A total of 550 cases have been detected out of 1,983 samples tested till midnight yesterday. The number of cases has reached the highest mark in five months.
On August 13, 2021, 616 cases in total were detected in Chattogram.
At least 362 of the recently diagnosed are from the port city and 188 from different upazilas, said Dr Elias Chowdhury, Chattogram's civil surgeon.
However, there has been no death despite the increasing number of patients from rural areas.
This correspondent visited Chattogram General Hospital on Saturday, where several people with symptoms were waiting to get tested.
Trishna Bhattacharjee, a Rahamatganj resident, said she felt body ache and had a runny nose a week ago and was tested positive for Covid-19. "I felt well after three days of isolating. I have come to test again to know whether I have recovered," she said.
According to doctors, most of these patients show mild symptoms, while many others are asymptomatic.
Dr Abdur Rob, senior consultant of medicine and head of Covid-19 ward at Chattogram General Hospital, said the number of patients admitted to hospitals is little compared to detected cases.
Dr Sheikh Fazle Rabbi, the hospital's superintendent, said just 26 patients were admitted to the 100-bed Covid-19 ward yesterday.
Sixty-four patients were admitted to the Covid-19 ward at CMCH yesterday, said Dr Aftabul Islam, deputy director of CMCH.
Bangladesh Institute of Tropical and Infectious Diseases Laboratory's head Prof Dr Shakeel Ahmed said the omicron variant might be liable for the rapid increase in cases. "Omicron is 70 times more contagious than other variants."
Dr Shakeel blamed the lack of awareness regarding health guidelines for the increasing number of cases, both in city and rural areas.
"Only genome sequencing can confirm which variant is dominating the cases in Chattogram, but the procedure is costly and time-consuming."
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