The Directorate General of Health Services(DGHS) on Wednesday expressed concern over the current Dengue situation.

“So far this year, 6,450 dengue patients have been hospitalized in the country. We have recorded a total of 28 deaths among them. It is a matter of grave concern,” said DGHS spokesperson Md. Nazmul Islam.

Read: Dengue spike in Bangladesh: 242 more hospitalized in 24 hrs

“We all witnessed how hard the dengue situation hit us in 2019. We are on the brink of similar situation this year,” he said.

However the imminent disaster can be avoided if the concerned authorities including the city corporations speed up their anti-mosquito drives and people remain careful, the spokesperson said.

If someone suffers from fever they should immediately undergo dengue test alongside Covid-19 one. Besides, this test is free at government hospitals of the country,” he  added.

Regarding Covid situation in the last seven days, he said the infection rate was 23.45 percent on August 11 and it was a little over 19 percent as of yesterday.

“These are positive signs as statistics  are showing the infection rate has already started to decrease,” Nazmul said.

Read: Risk of dengue outbreak rises amid lockdown

The lowest number of patients was recorded in February with only 1006 Covid cases and the highest inJuly with 3, 34,228 cases.

The number of cases found in August  so far is 1,72,912 , he added.