Stay alert or risk third wave of COVID, warns health minister

Health Minister Zahid Maleque has warned of a third wave of COVID-19 if people do not follow the current health rules.

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 22 April 2021, 09:51 AM
Updated : 22 April 2021, 09:51 AM

“If there is a third wave, we will not be able to handle it,” Maleque said on Thursday during a discussion marking the National Nutrition Week.

The first wave of the coronavirus was manageable, Maleque said. Daily death counts had decreased to five or seven a day and the number of new infections had fallen below 300-400, but “carelessness and lack of caution” led to a sudden spike in cases, Maleque said.

“Why are there suddenly 7,000 new cases and over 100 deaths a day? We must investigate this to ascertain how the coronavirus wave developed and who carried it.”

Health Minister Zahid Maleque briefs the media on Thursday, Mar 12, 2020 on the condition of the first three patients who tested positive for the novel coronavirus in Bangladesh. Photo: Mostafigur Rahman

The health minister voiced concerns about a third wave if measures were not taken to identify the causes of the second wave.

“We must ensure that a third wave does not occur. We moved freely and carelessly,” he said.

“We went to different places, but did not wear masks, nor did we maintain social distancing. That is why we have a second wave. If we continue in this way, there will be a third wave.”

“How many doctors can we throw at the problem? How many beds? How many more high-flow nasal cannulas? How much more oxygen?” Maleque said.

“We cannot increase the number of hospitals and hospital beds overnight. Despite that, we have scaled up from 2,500 beds to 7,000-8,000 beds. We are now able to handle ten times as many patients. But we cannot repeat this time and time again.”