Lockdown not in plan right now: Health minister

Health minister Zahid Maleque on Saturday said the government does not want to impose any fresh lockdown right now but it might think about it if there is any unusual surge in the Covid-19 infection rate.

“We don’t want any lockdown. But we’ve to maintain health protocols. The government will take tough measures to force people to maintain health protocols,” said the minister while talking to local journalists after attending a booster dose launching event at Manikganj Nursing College.

The Covid situation is still better in Bangladesh despite the surge in cases worldwide driven by the new variant Omicron, said Zahid Maleque.

“Already, oral Covid pills have reached the country’s markets. But these pills are not any alternative to vaccines. Those who have got infected with it have mild symptoms,” he added.

The minister said the vaccination drive against Covid has already started at the ward level and it will be possible to administer at least 40 million doses of Covid vaccine in January.

“There’s no vaccine crisis in the country. Six crores more syringes have been imported from China to carry out the vaccination drive.”

Director (Admin) of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) Samiul Haq, deputy commissioner Md Abdul Latif were, among others, present.

Bangladesh logged four more Covid-linked deaths with 370 fresh infections in 24 hours till Saturday morning.

With the detection of the fresh cases after testing 15,074 samples, the daily-case positivity rate slightly declined to 2.43 per cent from Friday’s 2.74 per cent during the period, said the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).

The fresh numbers reported on Saturday took the country’s total fatalities to 28,076 while the caseload mounted to 15,85,909.

Meanwhile, the mortality rate remained static at 1.77 per cent during the period.

Besides, the recovery rate declined to 97.69 per cent with the recovery of 203 more patients during the 24-hour period.

Bangladesh reported daily Covid cases above 500 after two months. On 13 October, the country logged 518 new Covid cases with 17 deaths.

Meanwhile, three more Covid cases of the Omicron variant have been detected in Bangladesh, raising the total tally to seven, according to GISAID, a global initiative on sharing all influenza data, shared the results on Wednesday.