B'desh Covid testing sites see influx of patients

Dhaka, Jan 17 (IANS) In the wake of an ongoing Covid-19 resurgence, private and public testing facilities in Bangladesh's capital Dhaka are now witnessing an unprecedented influx of patients.

Long queues were seen on Sunday at one of the largest testing centers in Dhaka, Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital, where tests are conducted at a nominal fee, reports Xinhua news agency.

In the past week, queues also got longer outside many other private and public facilities, which share RT-PCR (reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction) results within 12 hours.

A total of 29,305 samples were tested in the last 24 hours across Bangladesh at the private and government facilities, after 24,028 on Saturday, the official data showed.

Bangladesh reported 5,222 new Covid-19 cases and eight new fatalities on Sunday, bringing the infection tally to 1,617,711 and death toll to 28,144, the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) said.

The cases have been rising remarkably in Bangladesh since the beginning of this month with offices, businesses and transport services in the country staying open.

Bangladeshi authorities on January 13 started to impose stringent rules to combat a fresh spike in Covid-19 infections.

In parts of Dhaka and elsewhere in the country, mobile courts initiated drives and fined those violating the restrictions.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has urged unvaccinated people to get jabbed to protect themselves the Omicron variant of Covid-19.

According to the official data, the Covid-19 fatality rate in Bangladesh is now 1.74 per cent and the current recovery rate is 95.99 per cent.

The total number of recovered patients in the country stood at 1,552,893 including 293 new recoveries, said the DGHS.

Bangladesh recorded the highest daily new cases of 16,230 on July 28, 2021 and the highest number of 264 deaths twice on August 5 and 10, 2021.