Medical professionals and rights activists have said more doctors are getting infected by the coronavirus as the days go by, and most of them are not assigned in hospitals dedicated for Covid-19 treatment.
The main reasons behind this are people hiding information, low grade PPEs (personal protective equipment) for field doctors, and lack of awareness among people which creates panic.
According to Bangladesh Doctors' Foundation (BDF) Chairman Shahed Rafi Pavel, around 85 doctors have been infected till Friday noon, while the number would climb up to 120 if the nurses and other health care workers are added to the list.
Most of these case were reported from Dhaka and Narayanganj. Recently, more cases are being reported from Gazipur and Mymensingh and others were reported from Noakhali, Narsingdi, Chandpur, Chittagong, and Bhola districts.
“More than 95% of the doctors are from hospitals which provide general and specialized services and not Covid-19 treatment,” Shahed added.
Bangladesh Medical Association (BMA) Secretary General Ehteshamul Huq Chowdhury also acknowledged the matter and reiterated BDF’s Shahed, saying it is a matter of concern that most of the doctors are assigned in general health services.
As of Thursday, civil surgeons, divisional health officials, directors or superintendents of hospitals confirmed information about 67 doctors who got infected while providing service.
If other healthcare professionals are taken into account, then the number will reach up to 82, he added.
Mentioning the above stated reasons, he also criticized the role of the media for not making people aware and not strictly asking them to stay at home.
“All media are focused on ICUs at hospitals but if they focused on how to inform mass people accurately, they would stay at home in a more conscious way, and there would be fewer number of infections,” said Ehteshamul.
However, from observation it can be said that people are still roaming on the streets and roads by defying orders and warnings from the government and the law enforcers, he added.
“If they were properly made aware, they would have stayed at home and there would be no incident of hiding information,” he opined.
Till Friday, Bangladesh has reported 75 deaths and 1,838 infections from Covid-19.
Meanwhile, the virus has killed at least 147,378 people and infected around 2,193,558 others across 210 countries and territories of the world.
