‘The government needs to install community isolation centres’
The zonal lockdown in Purba Razar Bazaar and Wari worked well. These are the model lockdowns.
The Covid-19 situation in Bangladesh is getting worse. On Sunday, 230 people died of coronavirus.
It is the highest number of single-day deaths during the third wave. It means that we are moving toward the peak point of the third wave.
All indicators of the coronavirus infection are increasing. The most alarming is that the case fatality rate is also on the rise.
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Infection cases generally decrease after two weeks of strict health measures, and the number of deaths begins to fall after three weeks of implementing lockdown-like measures.
On 14 July, the current lockdown will be lifted. I am optimistic that the country's Covid-19 situation will improve as a result of the lockdown, but it may take some time to see the results.
Though the infection rate is equal in the towns and villages, in the village areas, villagers have community cooperation and community mobilisation.
Villages have a better community-based healthcare system. Thus, the infection rate in the village areas will drop gradually.
We are concerned that the infection rate will rise again two weeks after Eid-ul-Adha due to increased movement of people in the days preceding the Eid.
The ideal lockdown means keeping people away from mingling with each other. We could force people to stay inside their homes with food and other necessities if we had a complete welfare state.
The reality is that we cannot afford to keep everyone locked up in order to keep our economy moving. We must allow them to go out and work.
What the government needs to do right now is to install community isolation centres at school, college, and university buildings to keep the identified patients.
Patients with minor symptoms will be admitted to the field hospitals. If we can achieve this, we will be able to treat patients before their condition worsens.
The zonal lockdown in Purba Razar Bazaar and Wari worked well. These are the model lockdowns.
We must use the local government body to provide food and other necessities to the poor.
The government can set up ward-level local government structures to assist poor people with various necessities, including food.
Even in normal circumstances, our healthcare system is inadequate for our population, let alone during the Covid-19 situation.
The number of beds, as well as the number of doctors and nurses, is very low, and treatment is very expensive in the private sector.
Now, the people have to pay 64% out--of-pocket expenses. But Bangladesh has decided to cut out-of-pocket health-care costs to half by 2030.
Community based health care, in that regard, is both preventive and curative.
We have a community-based healthcare system - from Upazila Health Complex to District Hospitals, to medical colleges or tertiary hospitals.
But our healthcare system works like the inverted pyramid - we have many specialised hospitals but we do not have this special treatment in primary healthcare. It should be diametrically opposite.
Dr Mushtuq Husain is adviser to the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR).
