For Bangladesh, June was the second cruellest month in pandemic

After record infections and deaths in April, June was the second cruellest month for Bangladesh since the coronavirus pandemic struck the country in March 2020.

The government confirmed 112,718 infections last month, with 1,884 deaths from COVID-19.

After the second wave of infections had begun, the death toll in April was 2,404 among 147,837 coronavirus cases.

By the end of June, however, the infections and deaths shattered previous records as the outbreak surged in the rural areas with the spread of the highly infectious Delta variant of the coronavirus.

On Wednesday, Jun 30, the government reported 8,822 new cases of the coronavirus, a daily record, with 115 deaths after posting 119 fatalities two days earlier.

Bangladesh on Thursday, Jul 1, registered 143 new deaths from COVID-19, a daily record, taking the toll to 14,646 as the country entered into a strict weeklong lockdown to bring the situation under control.

The COVID-19 caseload surged to 921,559 after 8,301 people were diagnosed with the disease until 8am, according to the latest government data.

The government had confirmed 98,330 cases with 1,197 cases in June last year before the situation gradually improved. 

Even amid the lockdown, public health expert Dr Mushtuq Husain thinks the number of infections and cases will rise further.

 

He also believes Bangladesh is experiencing a third wave of infections as infections and deaths dropped after the last round of strict lockdown in April.

“The graph of third wave of coronavirus infections is going up. Infections will rise for seven to 10 more days,” said Dr Husain, who advises government’s disease control agency IEDCR on COVID-19.

“And deaths rise in proportion if infections increase. Now the mortality rate among the coronavirus patients is 1.59. If we detect 10,000 in a day, the death toll in the daily count will be 160.”

Besides enforcing the lockdown, the government has resumed its mass vaccination campaign and more vaccines are arriving soon.

Dr Husain advised the government to enforce the lockdown strictly for at least two weeks.

“Those who are getting infected in this period will have be to be brought under the radar. Those with mild symptoms should be given telemedicine services. Only then the number of cases will drop after two weeks.”