The Directorate General of Health Services on Sunday advised elders and people with comorbidities to get hospitalised if they were infected with the novel coronavirus as Covid infections and deaths have surged.

The health agency, in its latest advisory, has moved away from its earlier position of admitting only critical Covid patients to hospitals after recording over 100 deaths among people above 50 every day in the past 14 days.

Ever since the viral disease emerged in the country on March 8 last year people aged above 50 accounted for about 80 per cent daily deaths amid researches warning that people with comorbidities face increased risks from Covid-19.

Bangladesh reported 225 more Covid deaths and 11,578 new infections on Sunday as its overall death toll from the disease has climbed to 17,894 and infections have crossed 11 lakh, including over 1.5 lakh active cases.

‘Those who have comorbidities or are suffering from chronic diseases or are elders must get hospitalised after contracting Covid-19,’ said DGHS director Nazmul Islam at a routine virtual press briefing on Sunday afternoon.

They must strictly follow their doctor’s advice and leave hospital only after they are out of danger, he said.

 Covid-19 has killed 3,042 people so far this month with 2,386 of them aged above 50.

Diabetes, heart and kidney diseases are becoming increasingly common among people above 50 in Bangladesh largely because of environmental pollution.

Health experts interpreted the announcement   as a further example of the health agency passing the responsibility of medical management of the viral disease onto the Covid patients themselves.

‘This advice is not going not help people anyway when Covid tests are scarce and the government has almost no arrangement for taking people, especially the poor, to hospitals,’ public health expert Rashid-e-Mahbub told New Age.

People still find hospitals unfriendly and try their best to avoid going there, where even basic lifesaving facilities are absent in many cases.

Health experts said that many of the Covid patients with comorbidities could be treated at home easily had the government developed a mechanism to keep them under constant monitoring in order to keep the number of critical cases low.

‘Hospitalisation of people with comorbidities may also add to the disease burden as badly-maintained hospitals are source of acquiring many viral and bacterial diseases, especially cough infection,’ he said.

The latest DGHS advice also came at a time when a worsening Covid situation is feared because people, travelling, shopping or selling and buying sacrificial animals, are mingling on a large scale ahead of Eid-ul-Azha.

After testing 39,806 samples in the 24-hour reporting cycle until 8:00am Sunday, the DGHS found Covid infection in 11,578 of them, a 29.09 per cent positivity rate.

With the new cases, the overall number of infections caused by the virus has risen to 11,03,989.

Many hospitals have already run out of beds dedicated to Covid patients as a viral surge, believed to be caused by the Delta variant, has continued.

The highly infective Delta variant has turned neighbouring India into the global coronavirus hotspot while it is also leading many countries to re-impose movement curbs.

Sylhet and Barishal divisions reported 37 per cent and 40 per cent test positivity respectively while Dhaka, Chattogram and Rangpur divisions reported about 30 per cent.

Rajshahi division reported over 20 per cent positivity while Mymensingh and Khulna about 25 per cent.

The fresh 204 deaths occurred in 51 districts with the highest 41deaths reported by Dhaka. The other districts with high daily deaths were Cox’s Bazaar, Noakhali, Gazipur, Cumilla, Bogura, Khulna, Kushtia and Sylhet.

A total of 123 of the fresh dead are men while the rest are women.

Government hospitals recorded 180 of the new deaths and private hospitals 32 deaths while 13 died at home, according to the DGHS daily Covid update.

Division-wise, Dhaka reported the highest 60 deaths, followed by Khulna with 54 deaths, Chattogram with 40 deaths, Rajshahi with 20 deaths, Sylhet, Rangpur and Mymensingh with 14 deaths each and Barishal with 9 deaths.

One hundred and sixty-seven of the fresh dead were aged above 60 years while 31 were between 41 years and 50 years, 16 between 31 years and 40 years, seven between 21 years and 30 years, three between 11 years and 20 years and one below 10 years, according to the DGHS update.  

Sunday was the 8th day the daily death count crossed 200.  

The New Age correspondent in Barishal reported that relatives of a Covid patient who died at the ICU of Barishal Sher-E-Bangla Medical College Hospital vandalised the ICU.