BSS-24 IEDCR detects two more new coronavirus cases

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ZCZC

BSS-24

COVID-19-BRIEFING LEAD

IEDCR detects two more new coronavirus cases

(Recasts, DG Health’s clarification on expanded testing)

DHAKA, April 2, 2020 (BSS) – Healthcare officials today confirmed detection of fresh two COVID-19 patients overnight, raising the number of the confirmed coronavirus cases to 56 while its toll remained static at six.

“Two more persons have tested positive with Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, taking the number of the confirmed cases to 56,” Directorate General of Health Services’ (DGHS) director Md Habibur Rahman told a virtual media briefing at the IEDCR here today.

He said one of the fresh victims was in his 30s while other was in his 70s as “we’ve tested 141 samples in the last 24 hours”.

Rahman said 26 of the 56 patients, however, recovered from their infection by now in natural course as they underwent treatment in isolation while the current number of people in COVID isolation is 78.

Previously, he said 373 people were kept in isolation.

The health official during the briefing said directives were issued by the premier’s office to test at least two samples everyday from each upazila, a comment, which Director General of Directorate General of Health Services Professor Abul Kalam Azad later called an “inadvertently made erroneous remark”.

Talking to BSS, Azad said in line with the government actually decided to expand COVID-19 testing facilities countrywide while he simultaneously disowned Rahman’s comments that “we’ve collected 1000 samples, and the samples will be tested tomorrow”.

The health officials, however, said the government by now prepared 6,200 isolation beds in eight districts in the country while the quarantine system was categorized as “home quarantine and institutional quarantine”.

Rahman said a total of 62,127 people were quarantined so far, of them 243 were under institutional quarantine but 45,427 of the quarantined suspects were released as they tested uninfected.

He said the current number of people in quarantine is 16,700 while as many as 323 institutions were being prepared for keeping 18,900 people in quarantine.

Rahman said 1042,952 people so far were provided healthcare services from COVID hotline mobile numbers and health web portal.

He noted that the country has sufficient logistic equipment, including Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and kits and by now “we’ve distributed 3, 57,250 PPE at different hospitals of the country and we’ve enough stock of such essential protective gears”.

Now, he said, the country now has 92,000 test kits, of which 20,000 were distributed at different hospitals.

Rahman said a large grouping of 12,448 doctors formed by the government were voluntarily providing treatment to the people through mobile phone and “the number of such medical professionals is increasing every day”.

The IEDCR urged people to call only the two numbers – 01944333222 and 10655 – which will connect to the other toll-free numbers.

It said the people can get their required Covid-19-related information through e-mail [email protected] and facebook account-Iedcr.

BSS/ASG/MMR/SH/AR/2152hrs