Bangladesh Reopens Economy Despite Third Wave of Kovid


DHAKA, Bangladesh — Nasrin Jahan woke up out of breath. His daughter held him in the back of a rickshaw as he drove to a nearby clinic where he was hooked up to an oxygen cylinder. From there, an ambulance took him to one hospital, then another, and searched for a bed.

His daughter, Tajrin Jahan Yousha, tried to say, “Ammu, you’ll be fine”, using the affectionate term for “mother”. “We are close to the hospital. They will take care of you.”

Bangladesh’s already strained healthcare system is being crushed by the country’s third and by far deadliest brutality. coronavirus infection wave. about 60 percent 23,000 virus-related deaths and more than half of its total infections have been recorded since the beginning of April. Hospitals were occupied. Just 4 percentent The entire population has been vaccinated.

Still, on Wednesday, Bangladesh, a country of 165 million people, lifted most of the quarantine. There were banks, shops and shopping malls. allowed to reopen. Buses and trains will continue to operate at half capacity. They follow the ready-made clothing industry, mainstay of the economyreopened two weeks ago.

Health experts fear that lifting restrictions will only worsen the epidemic.

“If we reopen everything despite the escalating infection, we face more dire consequences,” said Benazir Ahmed, an epidemiologist and a member of the government’s advisory group on vaccines.

Bangladesh felt the pain of shutting down its economy. despite the state of the country big steps While lifting hundreds of thousands of people out of poverty, at least 24.5 million people have been pushed into poverty by the pandemic. an april work.

Government advisers said the country’s leaders had no choice but to reopen. “It is not possible for the government to keep the country locked up forever,” said Mohammad Shahidullah, chairman of the government’s Covid-19 committee. told the local press Wednesday.

By reopening the country less than three weeks later, health experts say authorities are effectively shifting responsibility to individuals. The government ignored its recommendations last month when it eased an earlier lockdown for the Islamic Eid, leading to super-spread incidents that have caused a spike in infections. Millions of people were crammed into buses, cattle markets and shopping malls and gathered for prayers and festivities.

Dr. “The infection rate was high when convenience was declared in defiance of experts’ warnings, and now we are seeing the result,” Ahmed said.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government said hospitals in the country were overrun due to “a dire need for intensive care”. Authorities rent hotels and build makeshift hospitals to treat patients.

“We can no longer increase the number of beds in our hospitals,” Health Minister Zahid Maleque said on Saturday. “Citizens now have to do their part to lower the Covid-19 infection rate.”

Ambulances are ringing their sirens as they carry patients seeking beds, oxygen and intensive care in the capital Dhaka, one of the most densely populated cities in the world. Some hospitals say, “We’re sorry. No beds.”

Kakoly Akhter, six months pregnant with her fourth child, arrived in Dhaka late last month for treatment for Covid-19 after her hometown hospital, 65 miles away, ran out of oxygen. Two days later, Ms. Akhter managed to find a bed at Dhaka Medical College Hospital, one of the largest Covid hospitals in the city. The mother and baby died a few hours later.

“If we had an early ICU bed, we wouldn’t have lost her at just 34,” said Delwar Hossain, Ms. Akhter’s nephew. “He left three children behind. How will they grow up without their mother?”

In the country’s remote villages, where almost two-thirds of the population live, doctors are scarce and the health infrastructure is already overloaded. There is less than one doctor per 1000 people in Bangladesh. world Bankor less than a quarter of the level of the United States or Britain.

Last month, Jannatul Ferdous Any, a woman in her early 30s, fell ill in the city of Sirajganj. At first, he just had a fever. Then he couldn’t breathe.

His brother Saiful Islam took him to Sirajganj General Hospital on July 4. Three days later, he said the hospital ran out of oxygen.

A hospital 20 miles away agreed to admit him and give him oxygen, but could not find a bed in the intensive care unit.

A week later, Miss Any’s condition worsened in the middle of the night. He started breathing air. Mr Islam said the last thing he said to him was to take care of his parents.

“This coronavirus has taken it away from us forever,” he said. “She was our parents’ only daughter and our only sister.”

The third wave also affected doctors and health workers. The Bangladesh Medical Association said at least 180 doctors have died since April 2020. As of Monday, more than 3,000 health workers, including more than 3,000 doctors and nurses, tested positive for the virus.

Nazmul Haque, director of Dhaka Medical College Hospital, said his biggest problem is staff shortages.

“Many of our doctors, nurses and other staff have tested positive for Covid-19,” he said. “Some of our employees have died as well. It was enough to demoralize many of them.”

A doctor working in the hospital’s intensive care unit, Dr. Shamema Akter said she knew it was only a matter of time before a third wave hit Bangladesh. On the border with India, where the more contagious Delta variant of the virus was first detected, Second wave drowned hospitals in the spring. Bangladesh ministry of health said in a statement, Delta variant responsible for more than 60 percent of new cases.

“Accordingly, we prepared ourselves to work long hours,” Akter said. But sometimes they get so tired that they have “mental breakdowns,” he said.

Last week, when Ms. Jahan desperately needed a hospital bed, doctors at Dhaka Medical College Hospital advised her to have her lungs scanned. After reviewing the scan, a doctor told her 16-year-old daughter, Ms. Yousha, that one of her mother’s lungs was severely infected, but there was no room for it.

Ms. Yousha said she wished the doctors would examine her mother more closely, but did not blame them for the bed shortage. “We don’t want to hold anyone accountable,” he said. “This was our destiny.”

The director of the hospital, Dr. Haque declined to comment.

Inside the ambulance, Ms. Yousha talked to her mother to keep her from losing consciousness. Ms. Jahan told her daughter to “forgive” her and take care of her mentally and physically disabled older sisters.

“You have big responsibilities,” he told his daughter. “Live with each other.”

Moments later, she could hear her mother’s breathing slowing. Ms. Yousha began to read what she remembered from the Qur’an until she reached the second hospital.

The staff there took Ms. Jahan to the triage room. Within 10 minutes, they told Ms. Yousha that her mother had died.

“I have never slept alone. I have never slept without my mother,” said Ms. Yousha. Her aunts and uncles said they would take care of her and her siblings, but they would always feel Miss Jahan’s absence.

“No one can replace your mother”

Seyf Hasnat Reported from Dhaka, Bangladesh and Karan Deep Singh of New Delhi. Fabeha Monir contributed to the reporting.



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