coronavirus BD
Bangladesh reports 197 new deaths as it fails to take hold on Covid
Bangladesh added 197 fatalities to its national tally on Friday as horrific Covid hospitalisations and deaths continue to soar.
The country is averaging 200-plus single-day fatalities for the last three weeks. After weathering the first wave of the virus, Bangladesh is now yet to see any tangible signs that it is turning the corner.
However, the country is now reporting 10,602 new cases on average each day – 73% of the peak.
Bangladesh recorded 8,465 new cases Friday after testing 40,641 samples, down from 12,606 logged a week earlier on August 6.
The country reported the highest daily Covid-19 fatality number – 264 – on August 5 and 10, and 16,230 infections on July 28.
Read: Dhaka to receive 10 lakh Sinopharm vaccine doses shortly
Bangladesh has been experiencing a surge of Covid-related caseloads and deaths since June 2021.
How Mamtaz Begum got double-jabbed in 5 minutes
A 60-year-old woman Thursday allegedly received back-to-back two jabs of the Covid-19 vaccine within five minutes at Sheikh Sayera Khatun Medical College and Hospital in Gopalganj upazila.
The woman named Mamtaz Begum, 65, resident of municipal ward-3 has received the jabs around 12pm today.
Mamtaz Begum said after entering the female room and showing her card at the centre a nurse gave her the first shot, sitting her on the bench.
As she felt dizzy, Mamtaz Begum remained in the seat for a few minutes.
In the meantime, another nurse came and hurriedly gave her another shot telling her to move from the seat fast, said Mamtaz Begum.
When she asked if she had to take two back to back doses of the vaccines the nurse became aware of the mistake.
However the UNB reporter couldn’t contact the nurse who was on duty at that time.
Sakibur Rahman, an official from the civil surgeon’s office said the nurse mistakenly went to give her the second jab to Mamtaz Begam as she was sitting at the spot of receiving the jab starching her hand.
“As soon as she said she got jabbed once the nurse stopped and she only received a poke of the needle,” he said.
However Mamtaz Begum has been asked to contact the health authorities in case of any health difficulties, said Sakibur Rahman.
Although certainly not advised, no real adverse effect as such has been identified from getting double-jabbed in quick succession, mainly because cases are extremely, extremely rare.
Vaccination: UNHCR lauds Bangladesh for inclusion of Rohingyas
UNHCR has welcomed the commencement of the vaccination of Rohingyas in Cox's Bazar in line with national authorities’ broader public health efforts.
"We are grateful to the Government of Bangladesh for having included Rohingya refugees in the vaccination campaign," said Johannes Van Der Klaauw, UNHCR’s Representative in Bangladesh, on Wednesday.
The UN refugee agency said equitable inclusion of Rohingyas in allocation of vaccines is critical to curbing the spread of the ongoing pandemic.
"The Rohingya refugee and host community volunteers have an essential frontline role in containing the spread of COVID-19 in the camps. The first step in fully protecting communities; however, is through the rollout of vaccination," UNHCR’s Representative in Bangladesh emphasized.
On Tuesday, over 4,000 Rohingyas received their first COVID-19 vaccine, as part of a national vaccination drive to curb the spread of the deadly virus.
Read: Covid kills 237 more in Bangladesh as Delta strain takes hold
Rohingyas eligible for vaccination in the first cohort include some 48,000 individuals over 55 years of age. The drive will continue until August 17.
The vaccination drive for Rohingyas is being led by the Bangladesh authorities with technical support from the UN Refugee Agency, the World Health Organization and other humanitarian partners.
The fight against the pandemic has been led by thousands of refugee and host community volunteers, who have worked since 2020 on informing refugees about health and hygiene, monitoring any signs of illness, and connecting the refugee community with critical health services.
While the threat of COVID-19 remains critical, their efforts have helped to prevent and curb outbreaks and have saved lives, said the UN agency.
The vaccinations follow the devastating monsoon rains that hit Cox’s Bazar District over the past weeks, causing flash floods and landslides which killed eight Rohingya refugees and 15 Bangladeshis in the host communities.
Read: Vaccination drive in Bangladesh: Procurement of 60 mln Sinopharm doses gets nod
Almost 25,000 refugees were displaced due to landslides, flooding, wind and storms.
Thousands of facilities have been damaged including primary health clinics, distribution points and latrines.
Access was hindered due to damage to roads, pathways and bridges.
UNHCR’s Emergency Response Teams, and partners, refugee and host community volunteers were deployed to assess the damage, to provide support to families forced to relocate, to begin immediate repairs of shelters and other site improvements and to ensure access to essential services for all.
While the weather has improved over the last few days, the monsoon season will continue for another couple of months followed by the cyclone season.
Frustration grows as chaos continues at Bangladesh’s vaccination centres
Vaccination centres across the country drew huge crowds on the 5th day of the mass vaccination drive, creating a chaotic situation everywhere and raising the risk of the virus transmission.
After a reality check at different vaccination centers, UNB correspondents saw long queues of people standing close to each other with little or no regard to social distancing rules.
Hundreds of jab-seekers, both male and female, turned up at the small vaccination centres with or without online registrations, overwhelming its medical staff.
The medical staff at the vaccination centres and the vaccine aspirants pointed fingers at each other because of mismanagement and slow pace of vaccination.
According to the UNB correspondents, the number of staff was too inadequate to smoothly vaccinate such a huge number of people.
As the ruthless Delta variant of Covid-19 keeps spreading like wildfire, Bangladesh on Saturday kicked off another phase of its mass vaccination drive aimed at inoculating 35 lakh people in six days.
However, the drive has not been free of controversies as mismanagement and anomalies across the country became a topic of discussions in the last few days.
Even on the very first day of the drive, UNB reported about the chaotic situation which arose at the city’s Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College and Hospital.
Nearly 4,000 vaccine seekers, including men and women, were seen waiting in queues in the corridors of its first and second floors with the vaccination going on at a snail’s pace.
Read: Covid kills 237 more in Bangladesh as Delta strain takes hold
Outraged by the “mismanagement”, the vaccine seekers said the situation turned worse as there was no arrangement for women to stand in any separate queue.
Tired of the long wait in the queue, the irate crowds got involved in quarrels with Ansar personnel and the hospital staff.
Some of them were seen trying to push each other to enter the vaccination rooms venting their anger amid chaos.
Inside the vaccination rooms, it was found that only two to three nurses were providing shots while another two or three medical staff were checking vaccination registration papers. They had to struggle a lot to cope with the situation for lack of manpower.
Intercity, freight trains also to operate from Aug 11: Ministry
The Ministry of Railways has decided to operate 38 pairs of intercity and 20 commuter/freight trains from August 11 following the government’s announcement to ease the ongoing lockdown.
The ministry in a circular on Sunday said it has decided to operate passenger trains on all of its routes with a few exceptions following health guidelines until further directive.
The ministry, however, said intercity trains Ekta Express, Sundarban Express, Nilsagar Express and Rangpur Express will not operate from Dhaka on August 11, while Tongipara Express will not operate from Gobra.
Read: Govt eases lockdown from Aug 11 with some guidelines to follow
It said 50% tickets of intercity trains will be sold online and through mobile apps while the remaining 50% will be sold from Monday 8 am.
In the case of any negligence in maintaining health rules while operating the trains, legal action will be taken against the authorities concerned, the ministry said.
The movement of passenger trains has remained suspended across the country since July 23 after the government re-imposed the stringent lockdown amid a massive surge of Covid cases.
Read: Lockdown or no lockdown, life is the same in Dhaka
The passenger trains were allowed to move for eight days from July 15-22 across the country keeping 50% of the seats empty apparently to facilitate the movement of people ahead of Eid-ul-Azha.
Meanwhile, the Cabinet Division issued a circular saying that the government has decided to allow all public transport to operate at full capacity across Bangladesh from August 11.
Lockdown breaches: 241 arrested in Dhaka on day 17
Police arrested 241 more people in Dhaka on Sunday for violating lockdown restrictions on the 17th day of the countrywide lockdown aimed at reducing the Covid-19 spread.
The arrestees failed to show any valid reason for being out on the streets, said DMP Additional Deputy Commissioner (Media) Iftekharul Islam.
Meanwhile, mobile courts collected Tk 37,450 in fines from 84 people.
Read: Govt eases lockdown from Aug 11 with some guidelines to follow
Also, the Traffic Division collected Tk 12,18,000 as penalties from 537 vehicles for violating lockdown restrictions.
The number of vehicles and people on the city’s streets were comparatively higher on Sunday than the previous day.
The movement of people and vehicles increased significantly on the 17th day of lockdown on as many people are coming out of their houses for various reasons.
Read: Lockdown or no lockdown, life is the same in Dhaka
Some people are going outside for vaccination as mass vaccination programme began in the country on Saturday while many more for other reasons as export-oriented factories were opened on August 1.
It is only the shopping malls and eateries that remained closed and public transport stayed off roads as per lockdown rules.
Bangladesh reports 248 more deaths as Delta variant keeps lashing
As the ruthless Delta variant keeps spreading like wildfire, Bangladesh added 248 fatalities to its national tally Friday, up from 212 logged a week earlier.
The country has been reporting over 200 single-day fatalities for the last two weeks as it races to head off a surge in Covid-19 cases driven by the unrelenting Delta variant.
After weathering the first wave of the virus, Bangladesh's health services are now stretched dangerously thin.
The Covid-19 infections are on the upswing, with 13,771 – 95% of the peak – new cases reported on average each day.
Bangladesh recorded 12,606 new cases on Friday after testing 48,015 samples, down from 13,862 logged a week earlier on July 30.
Read: Bangladesh ready to kick off massive vaccination drive Saturday: DGHS DG
The country reported the highest daily Covid-19 fatality of 264 on August 5 and 16,230 infections on July 28.
Bangladesh to receive 34 lakh Sinopharm vaccine doses next week: FM
Bangladesh will receive another consignment of 34 lakh doses of Sinopharm vaccine next week while 60 lakh doses of Pfizer vaccine in the first week of September, said Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen on Thursday.
Apart from that, Bangladesh will also receive 10 lakh doses of AstraZeneca vaccine soon which is likely to come under the COVAX facility, he said.
“We’ve lined up well. We think we’re on the right track,” he told reporters at State guesthouse Padma after attending a function there.
Referring to the Health Ministry, Dr Momen said Bangladesh has a stock of 1.23 crore vaccine doses and some of the doses (AstraZeneca) will be kept for the second dose.
Read: No movement without vaccine will be allowed after Aug. 11: Minister
On coproduction of vaccine, he said the memorandum of understanding (MoU) on coproduction of Sinopharm vaccine in Bangladesh will be signed at any moment.
The Law Ministry has already cleared it after vetting and it will be signed at any moment, said the Foreign Minister adding that “Everything is final.”
Dr Momen said the coproduction of vaccine doses in Bangladesh is essential. “I want the start of coproduction.”
Earlier, he said the MoU is with the Health Ministry and the Health Ministry should dispose of it very quickly.
Read: Vaccine coproduction deal with Sinopharm ready for signing: FM
Dr Momen said the government of Bangladesh, Sinopharm and a local company (Incepta Pharmaceuticals Ltd) will sign the agreement.
Incepta will bring in bulk and bottling, labeling and finishing of the vaccine will be done locally making the price relatively very cheap.
Asked whether there is any shift from the government plan to vaccinate 1 crore people each week, Dr Momen said it is their target as per the Health Ministry and hoped to vaccinate 8 crore people within two months.
No movement without vaccine will be allowed after Aug. 11: Minister
Taking Covid jabs has been made mandatory for public movement from Aug. 11, Liberation War Affairs Minister AKM Mozammel Haque said on Tuesday urging people to get vaccinated to avoid punishment.
The minister said this while talking to reporters about the government decision of extending the ongoing lockdown till August 10.
He said, “It has been made mandatory to take Covid jabs for public movement from August 11.
Read: BMRC clears Indian Covaxin’s clinical trials in Bangladesh
Any movement without being vaccinated would be considered a punishable offense.”
As per the government decision of reopening workplaces, local shops, factories and retail outlets along with public transports from August 11, people who didn’t get Covid jabs yet were instructed to get vaccinated within the remaining days of extended lockdown.
Read: Vaccine coproduction deal with Sinopharm ready for signing: FM
The government is set to launch a nationwide mass vaccination drive from 14,000 vaccine centres from August 7 aimed at giving shots to one crore people in one week. Once vaccinated, the certificate will be available to download on the website and it will work as the movement pass for people, he said.
The minister warned further that anyone over the age of 18 without a vaccine found on the street after the lockdown ends will face punishment.
Looking for hotels for Covid patients as hospitals struggle: Minister
The government is going to rent hotels for providing treatment to Covid patients with mild complications as hospitals are under an unprecedented crisis with huge patients, Health Minister Zahid Maleque said on Tuesday.
“Already 90 percent of the seats in hospitals have been packed. And 95% ICU beds are also occupied. We’re preparing a field hospital at Bangabandhu Medical University where we can immediately arrange 500-600 beds,” he said.
The minister said, “Everyone infected with corona needs not to be hospitalised. So, we’re thinking of renting hotels for dealing with the patients who’ve mild complications. We’ll have doctors, nurses, medicines, and some oxygen in those hotels.”
He came up with the remarks while talking to reporters after an inter-ministerial meeting at the Secretariat with Liberation War Affairs Minister AKM Mozammel Haque in the chair.
Read: Bangladesh’s Covid nightmare: 235 more die, 15,776 infected
Maleque said they have started looking for hotels as they will no longer be able to accommodate the growing number of patients in hospitals. “If we can give treatment to the Covid patients with mild infections at hotels, they’ll be able to go back home after recovery from there, and it will help reduce the pressure on the hospitals. So, we’ve taken this step.”