Bangladesh must be cautious as India sees Covid surge

The coronavirus situation in the country has come down to almost normal. The highest number of deaths due to the virus was recorded almost every day in the middle of this year. There, in the present day, death due to coronavirus also came down to zero. Yesterday, however, six people died. Everything has become normal as the restrictions have been lifted. But how ready are we for any new wave of corona? Earlier, despite having ample time after witnessing the dire situation in India, we had to suffer due to lack of preparation for the Delta variant.

Corona infections and deaths are on the rise in India again. New infections have been reported in many parts of the world. According to the media, the government is on alert to prevent the virus from entering Bangladesh from India. A recent meeting of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, chaired by health minister Zahid Maleque, also took a seven-point decision in this regard. These include strengthening security at border areas, corona testing at airports and land ports through proper management, strengthening hygiene protocol including wearing masks, setting up large-scale corona detection labs at international airports, instructing public administration officials for proper cooperation in proper immunisation activities and coping with corona, and instructing educational institutions to adhere to hygiene rules.

The foreign ministry informed the meeting from the updated information collected from all the missions in India that the rate of infection was high in Kerala, India. As a precautionary measure, increasing the number of corona tests and quarantine facilities in the border areas and vaccinating truck drivers should be given more importance. But during the first and second waves of the corona, we saw many decisions that could not be implemented and the disaster could not be prevented.

Border security could not be ensured in any way to prevent the delta variant infections. Quarantine and isolation were not implemented properly. The Covid victim was left in the care of the family without any official action. At that time, experts repeatedly said that a field hospital should be set up, but it rang hollow to the government and the ministry. Contact tracing has not been conducted from the beginning. As a result, the Delta quickly spread across the country from the border areas.

During the first wave, it was not possible to ensure ICU and oxygen supply in every district as per the instructions of the prime minister. Now that the corona situation in the country is improved, not only do some decisions have to be taken considering the increase in India's infection, but also preparations have to be made so that it can be implemented. We are also lagging behind in South Asia in terms of immunisation programme.

Although two waves of the pandemic have passed, we have only been able to vaccinate about a quarter of the population. The World Health Organization (WHO) has previously said that older people should be vaccinated first, but this has not been done. As a result of the vaccines being open to all ages, the protection of certain sections of the population could not be fully ensured. Doing so could have largely prevented the deaths of the elderly who suffered the most of Covid.

We need to learn from the mistakes we made in the past. No repetition of any previous mistake is warranted in any way.