Bangladesh confirms first COVID-19 cases

Dhaka, March 9 (IANS) Bangladesh has confirmed the first coronavirus cases in the country, but the government has urged people not to panic and to consult physicians if they showed any symptoms of the disease, it was reported.

Two men and a woman -- aged between 20 and 35 -- tested positive for the virus on Saturday, The Daily Star newspaper quoted Professor Meerjady Sabrina Flora, director of the Institute of Epidemiology, Diseases Control and Research (IEDCR), as saying on Sunday.

Two of them were from the same family.

"Two of them returned to Bangladesh from Italy. The woman got infected from contact with one of them," Sabrina said.

"One had temperature of 99 degrees, one had fever and cough and another had only cough. No special treatment is needed for them. They are being given treatment according to their symptoms. They will be kept in isolation until they recover fully."

Three more Bangladeshis who came in contact with the patients have been quarantined -- two in a hospital and one at home.

Although officials have claimed that measures taken were adequate, bureaucratic tangles and lack of coordination posed as a major challenge, The Daily Star newspaper said in the report.

Many hospitals were yet to receive personal protective equipment (PPE) and other things needed for treating coronavirus infected patients, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).

Sources said, the government has supplied around 2,000 PPE to several hospitals.

"The situation is not that bad. Officials in hospitals that have no PPE will manage it locally. Maybe they will wear two aprons," DG of DGHS Prof AK Azad told The Daily Star on Sunday night.

In South Asia, India has reported 41 coronavirus cases, Pakistan seven, Maldives two, and one each in Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bhutan.

However, there were no deaths anywhere in the region.