100,000 Covid-19 test kits en route from China, says DGHS

The health authorities in Bangladesh keep on saying there are enough test kits in stock but refused to provide the exact number of test kits stocked for testing suspected patients.

However, the health authorities confirmed that 100,000 test kits are en route from China.

Additional Director General (Admin) of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) Dr Nasima Sultana told Dhaka Tribune they were expecting to receive 100,000 test kits on Friday.

“There is no shortage of test kits in Bangladesh. We are well-equipped with test kits to test suspected patients,” she said.

She said she cannot provide the exact number of test kits in stock because the number is constantly changing.

On April 11, the Health Ministry confirmed in a press release that Bangladesh collected 92,000 PCR test kits. 

Of these kits, the health authorities distributed 21,000 kits in different labs and said the rest of the 71,000 kits are in stock. However, the Health Ministry stopped providing any information about test kits since then in their daily bulletin about the Covid-19 situation in Bangladesh.

“Some people need to get tested multiple times for accuracy and we are importing test kits as well. So, the number will never remain static,” Nasima told Dhaka Tribune.

She said she will not reveal the exact number of available test kits for this reason.

When asked which districts need the most number of test kits, she said each laboratory has its own need and the health authorities distribute test kits as per lab demand.

“There are 21 labs across the country and 10 of them are in Dhaka. Needless to say most demands are coming from labs in Dhaka,” she said.

During the online health bulletin on Friday, Nasima said the tests conducted in the past 24 hours ( Friday) were 7.9% higher compared to those in the previous 24 hours ending on Thursday morning.

The total number of tests conducted so far was 39,776 against a population size of 161.4 million.

Bangladesh has recorded the highest single day cases from coronavirus infection as 503 more people tested positive on Friday, taking the total number to 4,689.

The total number of deaths stands at 131 as of Friday.

Gonoshasthaya Kendra Founder Dr Zafrullah Chowdhury said 25,000 tests should be conducted per million to get the real picture of where the country stands in this pandemic.

People need to know how many test kits are available in Bangladesh because incomplete information is not helping anyone in any way at this moment of crisis, he said.

He told this correspondent the number of available test kits will show how many tests the health authorities can conduct in coming days.

How can you get tested for Covid-19?

There are three ways for someone who wishes to be tested for Covid-19 to arrange sample collection.

First, a person can call at Shasthya Batayan or the hunting number or the DGHS ((333, 16263, or 01944333222) and the recently established lab call cell will inform the local health official at the district and upazila level to collect the sample.

Second, the suspected patient can contact institutes having testing facilities directly and they will arrange collection of samples.

Third, a person can contact assistant health officials at the union level office and they will arrange it.

Where can you test for Covid-19?

Getting tested for coronavirus in Bangladesh has not been an easy task for many suspected cases, as the health authorities kept it quite limited since the first cases were reported on March 8.

Gradually, only 21 institutions were allowed to test for coronavirus since March 8.

Currently, ten labs in Dhaka and 11 labs in different districts are conducting Covid-19 tests for suspected.