Three physicians in different parts of the country died on Wednesday morning that shocked the medical community and general people.
With the new deaths, some 12 physicians died of COVID-19 or with symptoms in eight days between 10 and 17 June.
The first news of death came from Chattogram after Nurul Haque, a physician, had died while undergoing treatment at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of Chittagong Metropolitan Hospital.
Two more physicians died, later, in Dhaka and in Dinajpur on the same day.
According to the Bangladesh Medical Association (BMA), as many as 41 physicians have so far died in the country due to coronavirus infection and symptoms.
The BMA reports as many as 3,274 physicians, nurses and other health workers have been infected with the coronavirus so far. Among them, 1,035 are physicians, nurses 885 and other health workers 1,354.
The three physicians died Wednesday are Ashrafuzzaman, a retired associate professor in the burn unit of Dhaka Medical College, Shah Abdul Ahad, a former director of M Abdur Rahim Medical College Hospital in Dinajpur, and Nurul Haque, a senior physician at Chittagong Metropolitan Hospital.
Statement of the family of late physician Rezaul Karim
On the basis of BMA information, a report titled “10 physicians die in a week” was published in Prothom Alo on Wednesday.
According to the report, former vice chancellor of University of Science and Technology Chittagong (USTC) M Rezaul Karim died at the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) in Dhaka after being infected with coronavirus.
But his family told Prothom Alo yesterday that Rezaul Karim did not die of coronavirus infection. He was suffering from heart disease. He died at a hospital in Chattogram, not at Dhaka CMH.
Prothom Alo informed the matter to BMA office secretary Sheikh Shahid Ullah. The BMA has revised the list of physicians who died of coronavirus infections and symptoms. The BMA has removed the name of M Rezaul Karim from the list of physicians who died of COVID-19.