Bangladesh’s Health Minister Zahid Maleque has blamed the people for refusing to follow health guidelines leading to a resurgence of COVID-19. The first wave caused infection but not death leading many to think it’s not a serious illness and could be ignored.
Like other South Asian countries, Bangladesh thinks it has beaten it. Reality check is that Covid-19 is biting back with a clear global surge. Several nasty variants are now responsible and vaccines aren’t very helpful at this moment. If they hit Bangladesh, patient care for any large scale patient population would be very difficult indeed.
Bangladesh in particular and South Asia in general has been lucky in round one. Although Western experts were pessimistic about the South Asian scenario in March 2020 predicting millions would die in the region, they did not. As yet no specific answer has been found why but natural immunity, a different kind of virus, vaccination legacyetc are mentioned.
But here is the catch. South Asians have died in many numbers in the West so they are not naturally protected from all the variants and the current fear is that the next surge will be led by one of those mutants which is now spiking in the West.
Health Minister Maleque admitted that, the scenario is worrying. People have become careless and are not wearing masks and social distancing is out. The result is that the infection rate has increased andvirus spreading- friendly social life has geared up.
In fact, the daily rate of infection which had dropped to around 2 percent has now started to steeply climb back and its hitting nearly 6 percent now. Many including the Minister have said that one dose of vaccination has made many think the crisis is over. Since Feb 13, the climb has been pretty steep. The hospitalization rate has spiked as well.
The reports on Government’s case management and preparedness are positive and after a decline in April-May, the health system has been mostly returning to normal.The health system is in place but as many analysis have pointed out, the population density is a major threat.If there is a surge, even a spike of a virulent variety, it would cause higher fatality. To this would be added the panic, which Bangladesh saw in the March –June period making disease control very difficult.
Clearly, the people have stopped taking it seriously, but the Government needs to do that as well. There is a reluctance to take tough enforcement measures but other governments across the globe have. It’s not popular but it saves lives. And in case of Bangladesh it doesn’t really have to be bothered about popularity. Such a government can do much in enforcing the required guidelines on safety assusrance. One may not be this lucky the second time around. Bangladesh has let its guard down and it’s time to call the battle cry against Covid-19 once more. One must be alive to declare victory as well.
