Terming the current Covid-19 situation as difficult, Health Minister Zahid Maleque on Wednesday evening said if transmission were not reduced right now, the disease could not be brought under control.
He was speaking at a virtual conference organized by the Bangladesh Private Medical College Association (BPMCA).
Over 5,000 people are being diagnosed with Covid-19 every day, and among them a significant segment needs to be admitted to hospital, he said.
"If patients are being admitted to hospital at the current rate, without controlling the sources of coronavirus transmission, it will not be enough to turn the whole of Dhaka city into a hospital,” the health minister said.
“I urge all to obey health rules to go back to the happier moment we were in a month earlier," he added.
The minister said the number of patients admitted to hospital was very low outside the capital. He urged people to go to nearby Covid-19 treatment facilities rather than rushing to hospitals in Dhaka for medical help.
Zahid Maleque said the authorities were taking measures to increase the number of beds and ICU beds. A total of 2,500 beds would be added afresh.
A DNCC building in Mohakhali is being turned into a Covid-19 hospital with 1,200 beds, including 50 ICU beds and 200 High Dependency Unit beds.
He urged the private healthcare sector to add 1,500 Covid 19 beds in private hospitals.
The president of BPMCA, MA Mubin Khan, said measures had already been taken to include 1,000 more beds for Covid-19 treatment.
Meanwhile, Md Mustafizur Rahman, vice president of BPMCA, drew the minister’s attention to the lack of oxygen supply that could possibly worsen the crisis in Covid 19 treatment.
