ICU demand keeps rising

As coronavirus transmission has been rising from the second week of this month, the demand for ICU beds in the capital's hospitals has also increased.

As of yesterday morning, only 76 ICU beds out of 281 in Covid-19-dedicated hospitals in Dhaka were vacant, according to a press release from the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).

Meanwhile, the World Bank's board of executive directors yesterday approved $500 million in financing to help Bangladesh vaccinate 54 million people against Covid-19. Bangladesh's ongoing vaccination drive with the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine entered its 40th day yesterday.

Many ICU beds remained vacant during January and February this year as the transmission went down with the daily positivity rate dipping below five percent.

After March 9, however, the positivity rate started rising again with 10.04 percent of samples testing positive in the 24 hours till 8:00am yesterday.

"Over the last two months, there was no extensive demand for ICU beds in our Covid-19 unit. But now, we receive many requests every day. Today [Friday], I received at least 10 phone calls for ICU beds," Brig Gen Dr Nazmul Haque, director of Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) told The Daily Star yesterday.

In the DMCH Covid-19 unit, only seven ICU beds out of 20 were vacant yesterday. Due to Wednesday's fire incident, a 14-bed ICU ward in DMCH Covid-19 unit were closed.

"We will need one month to resume [operating] the damaged ICU ward," Brig Gen Dr Nazmul Haque said.

In the Kuwait-Bangladesh Friendship Government Hospital, the first Covid-19-dedicated hospital in the country, only one of the 15 ICU beds were vacant yesterday while there was no vacancy in the 10-bed ICU ward in Kurmitola General Hospital.

Meanwhile, a total of 24 ICU beds were vacant out of 45 in the port city of Chattogram.

There are a total of 558 ICU beds for Covid-19 patients in the country. Of those, 273 were vacant yesterday.

Out of more than 10,000 general beds for Covid-19 patients across the country, a total of 2,522 patients were undergoing treatment.

Meanwhile, 18 people  died from Covid-19 in 24 hours till 8:00am yesterday, raising the total death count to 8,642.

The death rate now stands at 1.52 percent.

After testing 18,917 samples across the country, a total of 1,899 new infections were recorded in the meantime taking the total number of people infected to 5,66,838.

With 1,618 Covid-19 patients recovering yesterday, the total number of recoveries now stands at 5,19,141 and the recovery rate at 91.59 percent.

Among the 18 deceased, 11 were male and seven female.

One of them was aged between 31 and 40 years, two between 41 and 50, three between 51 and 60 and 12 were above 60 years old, added the release.

WB APPROVES $500M FOR VACCINATION

The World Bank yesterday approved $500 million in financing from the International Development Association (IDA) to help Bangladesh vaccinate 54 million people against Covid-19.

The allocation comes at a time when a countrywide inoculation campaign is underway.

In a press release, the World Bank said the additional financing to the Covid-19 Emergency Response and Pandemic Preparedness Project will help Bangladesh procure safe and effective vaccines, expand vaccine storage facilities, and distribute vaccines to about 31 percent of its population, in support of the government's prioritised plan of covering 40 percent of the population in the first phase of vaccination.

"Bangladesh has taken quick action to combat Covid-19 by rolling out a national vaccination programme. To achieve the objectives of the programme, fast and equitable access to vaccines will be important," said Mercy Tembon, World Bank Country Director for Bangladesh and Bhutan.

"This financing will help Bangladesh strengthen its national systems to ensure the prompt delivery of vaccines to one-third of its population."

The financing will cover the cost of deployment of the vaccines acquired through the Covid-19 Vaccine Global Access Facility (COVAX) for about 20 percent of the population.

For the remaining 11 percent of the population, the financing will cover direct purchases of vaccines from manufacturers or through COVAX, and the costs related to administering the vaccination. In parallel, the government is purchasing vaccines using its own resources that will cover another 9 percent of the population.

From COVAX, the country will get 6.8 crore shots of Covid-19 vaccines, according to health officials. The first consignment will reach the country by May-June this year.

So far, Bangladesh has purchased three crore shots of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine from Serum Institute of India and received another 20 lakh shots of the same vaccine as gift from the Indian government.

"Building on Bangladesh's long and successful history of managing child immunisation programs, the financing will play a critical role in getting those who need it most immunised against Covid-19," said Iffat Mahmud, World Bank senior operations officer and task team leader for the Project.

"The project will continue to support setting-up of testing laboratories and expand provision of intensive care at the district level."

With this additional financing, the World Bank's support to the project now stands at $600 million. In addition, the Asian Infrastructure and Investment Bank (AIIB) is providing $100 million for this project.

The IDA credit has a 30-year term, including a five-year grace period.

This additional financing for Bangladesh is one of three projects in a first phase of support for the Covid-19 vaccination effort across the South Asia region.