Barishal logs highest single-day Covid cases

Barishal division on Tuesday morning logged as many as 879 fresh Covid-19 cases in 24 hours, the division's highest single-day spike this year.

Of the 879 new cases in the division, 492 are from Barishal district alone. So far, 10,104 people have been infected with Covid-19 in this district.

Besides, 15 more Covid-related deaths have been recorded in Barisal division in the past 24 hours, officials said.

Of them, 11 died at Sher-E-Bangla Medical College and Hospital (SBMCH), and two each in Barisal and Jhalakathi districts.

In-charge of DGHS’s divisional office Basudev Kumar Das said a total of 356 patients have died of Covid-19 in the division so far.

"Some 23,563 Covid positive patients have been identified in the division to date, and 16,128 of them have recovered," he said.

According to SBMCH authorities, 53 more patients have been admitted to the hospital in the past 24 hours. Moreover, 311 Covid patients are currently undergoing treatment at the corona unit of the hospital.

On Friday, local authorities imposed a ban on the admission of general patients to SBMCH to ease the pressure on the hospital doctors.

Meanwhile, the corona unit of SBMCH is scrambling for beds amid a sudden surge in Covid infections in the division. Though the authorities recently increased the number of beds from 10 to 300, the problem has not been solved.

SBMCH director HM Saiful Islam said, "It is impossible to run a 300-bed unit amid a shortage of physicians, nurses and other staff. At the moment, it is not possible to increase the number of beds in the corona unit due to a lack of support. We will now admit only critical patients."

Moreover, the diarrhoea ward of Barisal General Hospital has been turned into a corona unit to handle the deteriorating Covid-19 situation in the district.

"Admission of patients to the 22-bed corona ward started from Monday," said resident medical officer Malay Krishna Baral.