People with diabetes, hypertension dying more from Covid: DGHS
The majority of deaths from coronavirus are in people over the age of 60, and most of them are patients with diabetes and hypertension
Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) spokesperson, Dr Robed Amin, said on Wednesday that most people dying of Covid-19 in Bangladesh were already diagnosed diabetes and hypertension patients.
"The majority of deaths from coronavirus are in people over the age of 60, and most of them are patients with diabetes and hypertension," he said in a virtual health bulletin arranged by DGHS.
However, he noted that the new type of novel coronavirus is affecting a greater number of youths in Bangladesh as well.
He highlighted that Bangladesh is going through a second wave of Covid-19 infection.
"It has increased infections and death due to new types and mutations in the novel coronavirus," he added.
Dr Robed Amin, also line director of Non Communicable Disease Control (NCDC), added that the spike in Covid-19 deaths has been caused by rampant moving around of the general public.
"The infection has started to decrease. However, the death toll is rising due to reckless moving about. Hopefully the number of infected and dead will decrease in the next two weeks," he said.
He said the help of law enforcement agencies has been sought to ensure that doctors and health workers are able to move on the roads without any hindrance to their duties.
The NCDC Line Director remarked that misinformation is being spread regarding the availability of hospital beds and claimed there are around 1200 vacant seats in hospitals across Bangladesh.
"There are rumours that there are no vacant beds in government hospitals. This information is incorrect. Contact MIS to find out how many beds, ICU and ICU equivalent beds, are vacant in any hospital," he added.
Bangladesh reported 95 deaths from the lethal disease in 24 hours, increasing the total number of deaths to 10,683.
The country has reported 4,280 new cases in the last 24 hours, with an infection rate of 15.07%, pushing the total caseload in the country to 7,32,060.