Hospitals see fewer Covid-19 patients

With a gradual fall in infection rate, the number of Covid-19 patients keeps declining in hospitals across the country, according to health officials and physicians.
Following a steady decline in the number of patient, the government has reduced the number of beds earmarked for Covid-19 patients in the hospitals.
According to the statistics of the state-run Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), there were 14,449 dedicated Covid-19 hospital beds across the country as of September 08, 2020.
Only 3,536 beds were occupied by patients on that day, it said, adding that the total number of patients in hospitals was 3,828 even eight days ago.
However, 304 out of 550 ICUs are occupied by the patients suffering from respiratory disease caused by the deadly virus.
Seeking anonymity, a DGHS official said the fall in the number of patients has forced them to reduce the number of beds at the facilities.
"Look at the dedicated hospitals where more than 75 per cent of the beds are empty and it keeps on increasing," he said.
Citing its own statistics, he said there were 14,843 hospital beds for corona patients until August 31 but the number has now declined to 14,449.
The healthcare professionals have termed the improvement very encouraging. But they wanted the people not to be complacent as the rate is still above the normal.
According to the DGHS, the country recorded a total of 1,892 new cases during the last24 hours until Tuesday noon and the infection rate was 12.64 per cent, lowest in more than five months.
With latest inclusion in the confirmed cases, the entire number of infections here rose to 329,251 and the country now ranks third in Asia in terms of infections.
On the other hand, the tally of fatalities due to novel coronavirus reached 4,552 with 36 new deaths recorded during the same period.
According to the health bulletin that the DGHS issued on Tuesday, a total of 14,973 samples were tested across the country since Monday morning.
With the tests, a total of 1,659,697 samples were tested and the infection rate was 19.84 per cent as of September 08, 2020. The rate is the second highest in South Asia.
"With these numbers, the overall tally of confirmed cases rose to 329,251," the bulletin signed by DGHS additional director general Dr Nasima Sultana said.
A total of 3,236 more people recovered afresh, taking the number of recoveries to 227,809 and it took the recovery rate to 69.19 per cent.
BSMMU associate professor (respiratory medicine) Dr Shamim Ahmed said the number of hospitalised patients kept declining over the last several days, which was very encouraging.
"But there is no scope for complacency as we're still over the danger level. We must maintain social distancing and close contacting to get further improvement," he added.
Globally more than 27.5 million people were infected and 897,491 died until Tuesday 6:50 pm, according to Worldometer info on coronavirus.

[email protected]