The Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) authorities are set to take in Covid-19 patients for treatment soon, officials said.
DMCH Director Brig Gen AKM Nasir Uddin on Thursday said they were hoping to start admitting patients on Friday.
“If that is not possible, we will definitely start admitting Covid-19 patients on Saturday,” he told Dhaka Tribune.
“The preparation [to treat Covid-19 patients] is a difficult task. We have been working day and night to start admitting patients as soon as possible,” he added.
DMCH sources said the treatment would be done in phases. In the first phase, 300 Covid-19 patients will be treated. In the second phase, 600 more patients will be treated.
The old burn unit building in front of the emergency department of the hospital has been converted into a Covid-19 treatment facility. An Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and an isolation unit have already been set up there.
All the patients of the burn unit have been transferred to Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery near the DMCH, sources said.
The first cases of Covid-19 – a severe acute respiratory illness caused by a new strain of coronavirus named Sars-CoV-2 – were detected in Bangladesh on March 8. As of Thursday, 7,667 people have tested positive with Covid-19 in the country, 168 of whom have died.
