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Bangladesh reports another Covid death, 46 cases
Bangladesh reported another Covid-19-linked death and 46 fresh cases in 24 hours till Sunday morning.
With the new numbers, the country's total fatalities rose to 29,426 and caseload to 2,035,828, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
The daily case test positivity rate dropped to 1.00 per cent from Saturday’s 1.96 per cent as 4,621 samples were tested during the period.
The latest deceased was a man from Sylhet division.
Read: Bangladesh reports 37 more Covid cases, zero death
The mortality rate remained unchanged at 1.45 percent while the recovery rate rose to 97.38 per cent.
In October, the country reported 60 Covid-linked deaths and 10,043 cases.
Bangladesh registered its highest daily caseload of 16,230 on July 28 last year and daily fatalities of 264 on August 10 the same year.
No let-up in Dengue in Bangladesh, 29 die in five days of November
The Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) has recoded 29 deaths from dengue in the five days of the current month till Sunday (November 06, 2022) amid a sharp rise in dengue cases in different parts of Bangladesh.
Three more deaths from dengue in 24 hours till Sunday morning raised this year’s fatalities from the mosquito-borne disease in Bangladesh to 170, the second-highest on record after the 179 deaths recorded in 2019.
During the 24-hour period, 908 patients were hospitalized with the viral fever, according to the DGHS.
Read more: No respite from Dengue: Death toll rises to 167
The gradual increase in dengue infections has created panic among the residents of Dhaka city.
Hospitals are failing to cope with the pressure of dengue patients despite setting up new wards.
Doctors and health experts say that measures taken by the city corporations and other authorities are not proving to be effective. The publicity and drives carried out by the authorities to destroy larvae of Aedes mosquito, the carrier of the dengue virus, are appearing to be inadequate.
Read more: PM urges all to keep their houses clean to prevent dengue
Of the latest deaths, two were reported from Dhaka and one from Chattogram division.
The new figures raised the death toll in Dhaka division to 105, in Chattogram division to 43.
Of the new patients, 476 were admitted to different hospitals in Dhaka and 432 outside it, according to the DGHS.
Read More: Food, Drinks during Dengue: What to consume, what to avoid
A total of 3,368 dengue patients, including 2,042 in the capital, are now receiving treatment at hospitals across the country.
The directorate has recorded 43,107 dengue cases and 39, 569 recoveries so far this year.
On Thursday, the country reported nine dengue deaths, the highest death toll from dengue in a day this year.
Read More: Govt fixes cost of dengue test
Dengue outbreaks in Bangladesh exceeded all previous records in 2019, mostly in the capital city of Dhaka. A total of 101,354 dengue cases with 179 dengue-related deaths were officially recorded.
Action if any attempt is made to leak questions: Education Minister
Education Minister Dr Dipu Moni has said that measures will be taken if anyone tries to leak questions of the ongoing Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) exams of 2022.
The Minister said this while talking to reporters after visiting Begum Badrunnesa Government Women’s College exam center in the capital on Sunday.
“We’ve taken action against some people who had tried to leak questions of this year’s Secondary School Certificate (SSC) exams in Kurigram’s Bhurungamari upazila. We’ll collectively prevent such attempts this time too by punishing those who’ll commit such offence,” Dipu said.
The Minister also urged the parents not to stay outside the exam centers as this makes entrance of the examinees difficult.
Replying to a question about coaching centers, she said Coaching centers are needed as it’s impossible for teachers to pay attention to each and every student in the classrooms.
Read: June 25 SSC exam rescheduled to June 24: Education Minister
“We hope that the need for coaching centers will decrease once the new curriculum is introduced. However, we’ve given directives to shut coaching centers during public exams. To implement this directive, we need help from the local administrations,” Dipu added.
It was planned to hold this year’s HSC exams in July-August period but couldn’t do so due to flooding in the country’s northeast, she said adding, “If natural disasters hit any part of the country in the future, we’ll postpone exams in that area and hold exams in other areas as per schedule. Later, we’ll hold exams in the disaster-hit area within the quickest possible time.”
Don’t forget BNP-Jamaat's arson, violence in 2013-15: PM
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday (November 06, 2022) asked the countrymen not to forget the dreadful days of arson and violence unleashed by BNP-Jamaat in the name of protests in 2013-15.
“I would like to ask people of the country to remain alert so that no one can resort to such incidents anymore,” she said.
The premier was addressing an event titled 'Cries of arson, violence victims: A partial scenario of BNP-Jamaat's fire attacks, anarchy and violation of human rights' organised by Bangladesh Awami League at National Museum Auditorium in Dhaka.
Read more: Mustaque, Zia behind Nov. 3 jail killing: PM Hasina
Sheikh Hasina said some 500 people were burnt to death and over 3500 were injured during the arson and violence of BNP-Jamaat. “We tried our best to stand beside them and took steps for their treatment. But it is not possible to take away the pain and suffering of the people who lost their loved ones,” she added.
Sheikh Hasina said those who were burned had dreams and aspirations, but their aspirations were burned to ashes. “I would like to tell the people of the country that no one should forget that terrible time,” she said.
“We don’t have any objection (with healthy politics). But if anyone attacks people, they (attackers) will not be spared. It (violence) can’t be tolerated. No man can endure it,” she said.
Read more: Don’t resort to violence in name of movement: PM Hasina warns BNP
She said every person, irrespective of political identity and creed, has the right to life and livelihood. “We have the responsibility to protect the rights,” she added.
PM Hasina said she lost her father, mother and brothers just in a single day. “So, we “I can feel their pain, (who lost dear ones in the arson violence),” she said in an emotion-choked voice.
She said the people were killed alive setting fire to buses again and again in 2013, 2014 and 2015. “Why did they destroy the lives of the people this way? How could it be called a movement? We never saw such movements before,”
She said they (AL) waged movements on many occasions since her school life and joined the movements against every military dictator. “We also waged movements against Ayub Khan, Yahya Khan and Zia. But we, even in our dreams, never thought killing the common people through petrol bombs and arson attacks,” she said.
Hasina said the BNP had announced a blockade and strike, but their aim was to kill people. “Such attacks are gross human rights violations,” she said.
She said there are cases against those who are involved in this kind of arson violence, many are being punished and more will get punishment in the future.
Talking about the masterminds of the violence, the PM criticised those who support the order givers despite resorting to such destructive activities.
“I don’t know how anyone can support those who could unleash such destructive attacks and cause sufferings for the people,” she said.
Mafruha Begum, who survived but lost her husband Nuruzzaman Bablu and her 10th-grader daughter Maisha in a petrol bomb attack on their bus in Chauddagram of Cumilla in 2015, questioned why she had to lose her loved ones without any offense.
“We neither do politics nor understand it. Why are we leading a hapless life losing family members in arson violence? What was the crime of my daughter Maisha? I can’t see and hear voices of my daughter and my husband for eight years. I can’t hear Maisha calling me mother,” she said.
Mafruha said she could survive the fire as the husband threw her out through the window, but she could not save him and her daughter.
“My daughter and husband died from burns in front of my eyes. I still hear the scream and the call of ‘mother,’ the last word of my Maisha. I still can’t sleep throughout the night,” she said in a traumatized voice.
Salauddin Bhuiyan, who got huge scars on face due to burn injuries sustained in the arson violence in Jatrabari while going to Narsingdi from Dhaka by a bus in 2013, said he is often suffers neglect.
“I used to lead a happy life with a nice face. Now I live with deep mental agony. But I don’t get any job now. I still have the ability to work but none employs me,” he said, showing his two hands.
“When I get on a bus now, no passenger can sit beside me due to my disfigured face,” he added.
Like them, covered van driver Ramzan Ali who lost his 14-year son Munir Hossain in the parked covered van in Gazipur when it came under the petrol bomb attack in Gazipur; Runi Begum, who lost her son Nahid in arson attack in Shahbagh, Nasrin Akter, wife of BGB member Shah Alam who was beaten to death while on duty in Kanchpur; and Maya Begum, wife of Police constable Zakaria who was killed in the 2013 violence, Khodeza Nasreen Akhter Hossain MP who sustained burn injuries in the capital; and Laila Begum, wife of Police member Hazrat Ali who was killed in 2013, among others, shared their miseries and agony.
The Prime Minister talked to the victims of arson and violence unleashed by the BNP-Jamaat alliance during 2013-2015.
at the event, some victims, who are still suffering from the injuries or bear scars, and the victims' family members shared their trauma and demanded punishment of the perpetrators.
Read More: 70 BNP activists including Ishraque sued over vandalisation at Barishal AL office
The family members said they are now enduring serious financial hardship and mental agony after losing their loved ones during the political violence in 2013-2015. Noted Bangladesh's cultural personality Asaduzzaman Noor MP conducted the event.
Health must be at the centre in COP27 climate change negotiations: WHO
The climate crisis continues to make people sick and jeopardizes lives and health must be at the core of these critical negotiations, the World Health Organization issued the grim reminder on the eve of the pivotal climate talks at COP27.
WHO believes the conference must conclude with progress on the four key goals of mitigation, adaptation, financing and collaboration to tackle the climate crisis.
COP27 will be a crucial opportunity for the world to come together and re-commit to keeping the 1.5 °C Paris Agreement goal alive.
Read more: COP27: UN experts for complete integration of human rights standards, principles into negotiations
The WHO welcomed journalists and COP27 participants to join WHO at a series of high-level events and spend time in an innovative health pavilion space.
Focus will be placing the health threat from the climate crisis and the huge health gains that would come from stronger climate action at the centre of discussions.
Climate change is already affecting people’s health and will continue to do so at an accelerating rate unless urgent action is taken, WHO said in a message from Geneva.
“Climate change is making millions of people sick or more vulnerable to disease all over the world and the increasing destructiveness of extreme weather events disproportionately affects poor and marginalized communities,” says Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General.
“It is crucial that leaders and decision makers come together at COP27 to put health at the heart of the negotiations,” he added.
Read more: COP27: Bangladesh to reiterate call to materialize $100bn pledged for developing countries
Between 2030 and 2050, climate change is expected to cause approximately 250 000 additional deaths per year from malnutrition, malaria, diarrhoea and heat stress, according to WHO.
The direct damage costs to health (i.e., excluding costs in health-determining sectors such as agriculture and water and sanitation), is estimated to be between US$ 2–4 billion per year by 2030.
The rise in global temperature that has already occurred is leading to extreme weather events that bring intense heat waves and droughts, devastating floods and increasingly powerful hurricanes and tropical storms.
The combination of these factors means the impact on human health is increasing and is likely to accelerate.
But there is room for hope, particularly if governments take action now to honour the pledges made at Glasgow in November 2021 and to go further in resolving the climate crisis.
WHO is calling on governments to lead a just, equitable and fast phase out of fossil fuels and transition to a clean energy future.
There has also been encouraging progress on commitments to decarbonization and WHO is calling for the creation of a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty that would see coal and other fossil fuels harmful to the atmosphere phased out in a just and equitable way.
This would represent one of the most significant contributions to climate change mitigation.
Investment in clean energy will yield health gains that repay those investments twice over. There are proven interventions able to reduce emissions of short-lived climate pollutants, for instance applying higher standards for vehicle emissions, which have been calculated to save approximately 2.4 million lives per year, through improved air quality and reduce global warming by about 0.5 °C by 2050.
The cost of renewable sources of energy has decreased significantly in the last few years, and solar energy is now cheaper than coal or gas in most major economies.
WHO is custodian to 32 Sustainable Development Goal indicators, 17 of which are impacted by climate change or its drivers, and 16 of which specifically impact the health of children.
HSC exams begin across the country
The Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) and equivalent exams for the academic session 2021-22 began today (November 06, 2022) across the country.
HSC exams began at 11 am with Bangla 1st Paper on the first day.
Some 12,03,407 examinees completed their registration to sit for the exams. Of them, 6,22,769 are boys and 5,80,611 are girls.
Read More: HSC examinees decline under Jashore Board
Traffic jams have been reported from different parts of Dhaka ahead of the HSC examinations.
UNB correspondents found a long tailback from Kakrail to Viqarunnisa Noon School & College on Bailey Road in Dhaka, forcing many candidates to enter the examination centre at the last moment.
The HSC, equivalent exams are being held at 2,649 centers and 9,181 institutions across the country.
Also read: HSC, equivalent exams starting today
Mobile phone sets or others devices are prohibited in exam centres.
According to the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education, written HSC exams will continue till December 13. Practical exams will be held from December 15 to 22.
Woman found dead in Chattogram water tank
The body of a 21-year-old woman was recovered from a water tank of a house at Bandartila in Chattogram city on Saturday night.
The deceased was identified as Marjina Akter, daughter of Wahidul Gazi of Bauphal upazila in Patuakhali district.
Abdul Karim, officer-in-charge of Export Processing Zone (EPZ) Police Station, said Marjina along with her husband Md. Hasan and seven-month-old baby used to live on the 4th floor of a building.
Read more: Two unidentified bodies recovered from Dhaka streets
Marjina remained missing since Thursday afternoon. Getting no whereabouts, Hasan lodged a general diary with EPZ Police Station on Friday.
On Saturday night, the residents of the building complained to the house owner about bad odor from the water tank of the building.
On information, police went to the spot and recovered the decomposed body of Marjina.
Police suspected that Hasan might have killed his wife and dumped the body into the water tank.
Hasan went into hiding after the recovery of her body.
Dhaka's air quality 'unhealthy' as winter approaches
Dhaka's air quality continued to be in the 'unhealthy' zone Sunday morning.
With an air quality index (AQI) score of 186 at 8:26 am, the metropolis ranked second in the list of world cities with the worst air quality.
An AQI between 101 and 200 is considered 'unhealthy', particularly for sensitive groups.
India’s Delhi and China’s Beijing occupied the first and third spots in the list, with AQI scores of 226 and 170, respectively.
An AQI between 201 and 300 is said to be 'poor', while a reading of 301 to 400 is considered 'hazardous', posing serious health risks to residents.
In Bangladesh, the AQI is based on five criteria pollutants -- Particulate Matter (PM10 and PM2.5), NO2, CO, SO2 and Ozone.
Dhaka has long been grappling with air pollution issues. Its air quality usually turns unhealthy in winter and improves during the monsoon.
Air pollution consistently ranks among the top risk factors for death and disability worldwide. Breathing polluted air has long been recognised as increasing a person’s chances of developing a heart disease, chronic respiratory diseases, lung infections and cancer, according to several studies.
As per the World Health Organization (WHO), air pollution kills an estimated seven million people worldwide every year, largely as a result of increased mortality from stroke, heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lung cancer and acute respiratory infections.
‘Intense, fragile, powerful’: Forbes effusively lauds Paris exhibit on Bangladesh’s birth, Bangabandhu
“So intense, so fragile, and so powerful”. This is how a Forbes feature describes the Paris exhibit showcasing Anne de Henning’s photos capturing the tumultuous days of Bangladesh’s independence struggle and its founding father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
In reference to the ongoing exhibition that brings to life never seen before photos from the battlefield and of the architect behind the country’s birth Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Alexandra Fein, Executive Director of Asia Now, Paris Asian Art Fair was all praises and delivered the above-mentioned quote.
Forbes, an influential and acclaimed global magazine, published the in depth feature on the photo exhibition “Witnessing History in the Making: Photographs by Anne de Henning” that would remain on display until January 23, 2023 at Guimet Museum of Asian Art in Paris. The museum holds the largest collection of Asian art outside of Asia.
Pointing to the systematic manipulation of history following the gruesome assassination of Mujib along with most of his family members, the Forbes article found incredibly rare images of the Father of the Nation Sheikh Mujibur Rahman as a key highlight of the show.
“Most images of Mujib were destroyed during the coup of 1975,” the article reads.
“Especially uncommon” is how the article describes those images of the young country’s founder.
“These images were taken by de Henning upon her return to Bangladesh in 1972 when she went to witness Rahman’s address to the nation after the United States officially recognized Bangladesh as sovereign,” reads the write up.
Importantly, with focus on every aspect of the exhibition, the feature attributed the initiative as a marker of the country’s culture.
Reminding Bangladesh’s heroic battle against Pakistani Army in 1971 and the finest hours of the founding father Mujib in an independent nation, the article reads: “Tragic events certainly deserve all the attention they can get but a country cannot be defined without taking into account its cultural scene”.
Interacting with Forbes, de Henning commented, “I think it is important that in looking at the images the viewers feel the extent of the courage and determination with which the Bengali people were ready to fight to achieve independence for their country”.
The exhibition was earlier held in Dhaka and has been produced by Samdani Art Foundation and Centre for Research and Information(CRI).
Radwan Mujib Siddiq, grandson of Bangabandhu and a trustee of CRI, alongside others made a visit to the museum. A graduate from London School and Economics, Radwan is the publisher and architect behind ‘Mujib’, an autobiographical graphic novel on the Father of the Nation for young readers. He also played a key role in the making of “Hasina: A Daughter’s Tale”, a docudrama on his aunt Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and mother Sheikh Rehana.
Read more: Radwan Mujib visits Paris photo exhibit on Bangladesh’s birth, Bangabandhu
Importantly, the French photographer captured Bangabandhu giving a speech at the first Council Meeting of Awami League after the independence of Bangladesh. “I came specifically from Calcutta to photograph the event,” de Henning said. Although at the time she favoured shooting in black and white, de Henning chose to capture this event in colour because of the vibrant blue, white and red stripes of the shamiyana — ceremonial tent — that housed the event.
Rajeeb Samdani, who is a Co-Founder and Trustee of the Samdani Art Foundation, told Forbes, “We have failed to tell the story of our genocide. We have failed to tell the story of our long history of art and literature. We have failed to tell our history which involves a lot of sacrifice and trauma. Through all of this struggle we have become one of the top three largest garment exporters in the world and the second fastest growing economy in the world. So, our story today is one of growth, culture, and perseverance and this is the story we want to tell.”
Read more: Dhaka edition of World Press Photo Exhibition 2022 opens at Drik Gallery
FM condemns attack on ex-judge Manik
Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen has strongly condemned the ‘barbaric attack’ on ex-Supreme Court Judge AHM Shamsuddin Chowdhury Manik.
"Manik was a strong voice during the Liberation War. The attack on him is highly condemnable," Momen said in a media statement on Saturday.
With this heinous attack by the anti-liberation group on the distinguished citizen, their terrorist face has been exposed once again in front of the people, he said.
Read: 7 years in condemn cell despite acquittal: HC orders judicial inquiry
He expressed shock and anguish over the attack and hope that those involved will be brought to justice soon.
The retired Supreme Court judge claimed to have come under attack while on his way to attend a TV talk show on Wednesday.
The incident occurred around 4:15 pm when he was crossing Nayapaltan area near Rajarbagh Central police Hospital, where the BNP’s city unit was holding a rally.