Most dists lack Covid testing facilities

Most districts still lack access to Covid-19 testing facilities, despite government efforts to expand them amid rising cases and deaths.

According to data from the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), at least two people died of Covid-19 in the 24 hours till yesterday morning.

During this period, 18 people tested positive from 312 samples, raising the total number of cases to 331 this year. So far, seven people have died of the disease.

Amid the rising cases, health authorities said yesterday that they have supplied test kits to 40 government hospitals.

However, as of Monday, only 15 health facilities were conducting tests, up from just three private hospitals on June 1.

Of these facilities, 10 are in Dhaka, two in Chattogram, and one each in Cox's Bazar, Mymensingh, and Sylhet, leaving most districts without access to Covid-19 screening.

Only two of these are government-run hospitals.

Prof Halimur Rashid, line director of Communicable Disease Control at DGHS, said test kits have been distributed to 40 government hospitals since Thursday.

"We are focusing on increasing the number of tests," he told The Daily Star yesterday.

Covid-19 surveillance data, analysed by the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR), shows that the infection rate has been rising since last month.

Of 1,409 samples tested last month, 9.51 percent were positive—the highest positivity rate since January 2023.