Members of civil society have expressed their concern over country’s current state amid coronavirus outbreak.
Eighty-five members of the civil society signed on a statement, demanding IEDCR to disclose the actual number of people infected and those who died from coronavirus as they believe there are discrepancies between reality and IEDCR’s briefings, according to a press release on Thursday.
According to the press release, people have questions and doubts over the actual number of deaths and the infected from coronavirus since Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) announced the first coronavirus infection in the country on March 8.
The concerned citizens have said as IEDCR have given no opportunity to verify the data given during the briefings, so questions can be raised on accountability and transparency of the briefings.
According to the statement, usually a great deal of discrepancy between the government and non-government accounts of death tolls and damages during a disaster in the country can be observed. At present, that tendency is also noticed in the coronavirus briefings.
The statement also said there were incidents in the country where hospitals have refused medical care to patients which also raised concern and insecurity among people. In this circumstance, the actual number of infection and death from coronavirus is likely to be higher than the number stated by IEDCR.
The statement demanded that the cause of death and actual number should be disclosed transparently to the public.
Signatories of the statement included Politician and Author Badruddin Umar, Photojournalist Shahidul Alam, Prof Anu Muhammad, Revolutionary Workers Party of Bangladesh’s General Secretary Saiful Haque, former professor of Dhaka University Akmal Hossain, among many others.
