Crowd in city malls continues to swell

Public crowding in Dhaka's marketplaces and traffic on streets continue to rise in the wake of a relaxed regime of the health and social-distancing guidelines.
This blatant disregard for personal safety has posed a serious threat to the further spread of coronavirus.
Spot visits to some areas find that the ever-growing number of corona deaths and infections have hardly impacted people's propensity to be outdoors, making it difficult to flatten the curve of the disease.
Many people have left or are trying to leave Dhaka ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr, thus running the risk of getting infected with coronavirus or spreading it to new places through the infected but asymptomatic patients.
Besides, the increased number of people was observed in the city's streets and markets as Eid, the biggest religious festival of the country, is nearing.
From the very beginning of the lockdown since March 26, people looked reluctant to obey the social-distancing guidelines.
The government has also been easing down restrictions on movement from late April.
The authorities said restrictions were gradually relaxed to continue economic activity, although public-health experts termed the decision too early and may have dire consequences.
On Tuesday, Bangladesh reported the highest number of deaths for two consecutive days from COVID-19 on 71st and 72nd days since the first COVID-19 patient was found in the country.
Twenty-one COVID-19 cases have died in the last 24 hours, taking the toll to 370, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
A total of 1,251 individuals tested corona-positive and the total number of infections rose to 25,121, Prof Dr Nasima Sultana, DGHS additional director general (admin) told the routine briefing.
On Monday, 1,602 were infected, the highest number of infections in a single day, with 21 deaths.
On Sunday 1,273 were diagnosed with the disease with 19 deaths.
The total number of cured cases now stands at 4,993 which is nearly 19.85 per cent of the total infections.
An eight-member DGHS advisory committee earlier predicted that the peak of the disease in Bangladesh would start by the third week of May to last till the end.
Talking to the FE, a committee member, Dr Abu Jamil Faisel, said this uptrend in the number of infections and the rate of death support the previous forecast.
Emphasising strict measures to limit public movement, he said, "If people start commuting and going in large numbers to places of mass gathering like markets, transmission rate will definitely go up."
About laxity in the lockdown, the public-health expert said, "We've already recommended imposing cluster-based lockdown where the number of cases is high."
Besides, people in vulnerable areas should undergo robust tests to isolate the infected ones in order to prevent further transmission, Dr Faisel added.
Seeking anonymity, a virologist at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University said, "Identifying COVID-19 cases and contact tracing are the single most important thing to contain the spread of the virus."
In public health, according to Wikipedia, contact tracing is the process of identifying persons who may have come into contact with an infected person and subsequent collection of further information on these contacts.
The virologist said nearly 80 per cent of the infected individuals are asymptomatic, meaning that the infected persons do not show any or mild signs of illness and unaware of carrying the virus. Besides, many patients coming to the hospital for other health issues try to hide possible COVID-19 symptoms, posing a risk to doctors and their families, he said.
The virologist further said that testing capacity must go up past 10,000 a day to understand the actual picture of infection as people start moving casually amid resumption of economic activity.
On Tuesday, 8,449 samples were tested in 42 labs across the country in the last 24 hours while the number was 9,788 a day before, the DGHS data shows.
On the day, Inspector General of Police (IGP) Benazir Ahmed has requested everyone to stay where they are now, instead of going home ahead of Eid.
"Those who are thinking of going to village ahead of Eid, please don't. Stay where you are now and follow the government directives," he said.

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