As the number of coronavirus infections continues to rise across the nation, health authorities are still unaware of the location of at least 40% of the patients who tested positive with Covid-19 since the pandemic reached Bangladesh.
Bangladesh recorded 94,481 cases as of June 16, but information on more than 40% cases was unavailable to Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), which has been compiling and circulating location-wise data of Covid-19 positive cases.
The DGHS, on June 16, disclosed that location-wise data of only 55,909 cases was available, while the rest could not be included to the list that is officially released daily.
Although the directorate continues to circulate information on location wise data of cases reported in districts, however, no location-wise information on positive cases in Dhaka were disclosed since June 17.
According to the Bangladesh Covid-19 Situation Report-16 by the World Health Organization, the geographical distribution of 51,271 cases out of 90,619 detected positive cases was available till June 8.
The insiders at DGHS blamed the manner in which contact information was being collected from those who gave samples for Covid-19 testing, which lacked a proper database system and was not in an organized manner since the beginning of the pandemic in the country.
Most people, while delivering their samples at different laboratories and sample collection booths, only mention the area of residence, not the full address, which makes it difficult for the authorities to pinpoint the exact neighborhoods with Covid-19 patients, creating issues in data management.
It is also a problem for mapping the cases, crucial for zone wise mapping as planned by the government.
In the first week of May, DGHS took the responsibility of maintaining the data.
Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) Director Meerjady Sabrina Flora said authorities were now facing difficulties in locating the addresses of many people who tested positive, owing to incomplete information provided in the sample testing forms.
“We were facing difficulties in updating the data because many people were not writing in their full address when providing their samples to the collection centres. It is creating difficulties in determining their exact locations,” she told Dhaka Tribune.
She said it has created a massive backlog in the database which is now being updated.
Dr Flora, who is also member-secretary of the National Technical Advisory Committee, also said authorities were now asking sample collectors to record the full addresses of Covid-19 suspects and are using modern technologies for the purpose.
“We are now updating the list. The data will be circulated again shortly, once the list is ready and updated,” she added.
Mohammad Mushtuq Husain, consultant for the National Action Plan for Health Security (NAPHS) and former principal scientific officer (PSO) of IEDCR, said: “IEDCR stored the confirmed cases detailed location data till April for the sake of contract tracing. After April, they stopped doing that as community transmission began.
“Most of the information was taken in the form of phone numbers and the addresses like upazila or thana (police station), but not house number, road number and small areas. Now, many of the cell phone numbers are switched off or they just changed their area of residence,” he said.
Dr Dewan Muhammad Humayun Kabir, joint secretary and joint project director at Access to Information (a2i), recently told the newspaper that lack of full addresses has become a challenge.
“But, we have mobile numbers of all the suspected and confirmed cases. We have requested the authorities to see if the addresses can be figured out with support from the mobile phone companies using the contact numbers provided in the sample collection forms,” he said.
Insiders also confirmed to Dhaka Tribune that many of the patients switched off their mobile phone numbers after they came out positive and now were difficult to trace.
When asked, DGHS Director (MIS) Dr Habibur Rahman, however, claimed they had information regarding all confirmed Covid-19 patients across the country.
“The database is not integrated. But, the information of the confirmed cases was sent to upazila level and at civil surgeon’s offices at district headquarters when someone there was tested positive. We have the information, but just need to reorganize it."
Bangladesh reported its first Covid-19 case on March 8 and first death on March 18.
