Bangladesh saw about 58 per cent of the death from COVID-19 in the past four weeks of the infection as the death and detection in the country kept rising.
In the past 24 hours till 8:00am Saturday, 29 people died of COVID-19 taking to 1,997 the death toll from the novel coronavirus.
The country now stands 18th in terms of detected COVID-19 patients with 1,59,679 cases, including 3,288 detected in the past 24 hours.
Bangladesh on Saturday passed 17th week of infection since the detection of the first cases on March 8. The death and infection increased significantly in recent weeks.
In the past four weeks, the death hit 1,151, accounting 57.63 per cent of the total death.
The death was nearly half in the previous four weeks — 632 between the 10th and 13th week. The previous four weeks, 6th–7th weeks, witnessed 184 death while the first five weeks saw 30 death.
Experts said that death toll could have been lowered with proper management of patients.
‘We know about the scanty of resources and that there is no treatment other than symptomatic treatment, but the number of death could have been lowered if the patients were properly handled,’ said virologist Nazrul Islam, also former vice-chancellor of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University.
He said that many COVID-19 patients were dying outside hospitals although the hospital beds are remaining vacant, exposing the patient mismanagement by the government.
Bangladesh now stands 27th among 215 countries in terms of COVID-19 death and 18th in terms of identified patients with 159,679 cases.
Experts keep questioning the actual number of COVID-19 death and infection as all the deaths are not reported and the number of tests is also low in the country.
The death rate from COVID-19 in Bangladesh is 1.25 per cent. The figure would increase if the death of over 1,500 people, who died with COVID-19 symptoms but went untested, as the independent researchers find, is calculated with the confirmed deaths.
The death of COVID-19 patients increased at home in the country. Since May 17, the beginning of the 11th week, 384 COVID-19 patients have died at home or on way to hospital, accounting for 19.22 per cent of the total deaths, according to the data compiled by the Directorate General of Health Services.
Former Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research chief scientific officer Mushtuq Husain, said that the infection and death could not be lowered unless an organised measures were taken.
He said that all the infected patients should be taken to field hospitals and critical ones should be put in COVID-19 hospitals for better management.
The patients who are taking treatment at home could be better followed up at the field hospitals while isolating them at the facilities would decrease the risk of spreading the virus to others, Mushtuq said.
‘But unfortunately we could not open field hospitals like other countries despite passing so many months,’ he said.
Directorate General of Health Services additional director general Nasima Sultana said on Saturday in the online bulletin that 54.68 per cent of the people died of COVID-19 were working in age group between 21–60 years.
Of the deceased, 25.64 per cent were in 21–50 years, about 2 per cent were below 20 while 43.32 per cent were above 60, she said.
Besides, 79.47 per cent of the COVID-19 deceased were males.