The rate of COVID-19 testing in Bangladesh continues to be extremely low even 113 days after the detection of the first case on March 8 last, officials and experts said.
The densely-populated nation of 170 million population has the second-lowest test rate in the sub-continent ahead of war-torn Afghanistan.
Only 445 people among 100,000 were tested as of June 28, 2020, with the total number of tested samples reaching 730,197. Only Afghanistan (181 people) in the eight-nation regional bloc has fewer tests than Bangladesh.
The test ratio is the highest in the Maldives. It has covered 8,834 persons per 100,000 people, followed by Bhutan (3,176), Nepal (1,760), India (596), Pakistan (561) and Sri Lanka (472), according to Worldometer data.
Although the state-run Directorate General of Health Services claimed having enough stock of the testing kits, some of its officials admitted that the stock is too inadequate compared with the requirements.
Healthcare professionals were expressing their dissatisfaction over the poor testing facilities in a country that has already overtaken many global hotspots in terms of infections.
Fearing further fall in the number of tests in the coming days, they said the government's latest decision on imposing fees on the coronavirus tests might discourage many people, including of lower income groups, to go through the clinical screening.
Director of Sheikh Rasel Gastro Liver Institute and Hospital at Mohakhali Professor Dr Faruque Ahmed said the number of tests increased over the last one month, but the demand rose much more than screening facilities.
"We're far behind most of our neighbours. We've to increase the number of tests to get a real scenario of the pandemic here," he said.
Dr Rashid-e-Mahbub, former president of the Bangladesh Medical Association, was critical of the government's decision on fixing charges on COVID-19 tests to contain the misuse of the testing kits.
He said the imposition of any type of fees on the test could discourage many people from going though tests as the pandemic has bitten into the people's purchasing capacity.
"This is not a good decision at all. It could enhance the risk of virus transmission manifold," he added.
According to the DGHS sources, it is going to charge from Tk 200 and Tk 500 per individual intending to take COVID-19 tests. They said the fee is being levied as around 70 per cent of the tested samples do not have minimum symptoms of the viral disease.
Seeking anonymity, an official at the DGHS said they have shortage of testing kits, although the directorate claimed to have adequate stock.
He said there are a few labs that could not submit their daily activities due to reasons, including shortage of kits.
Meanwhile, an upward trend in the number of infections and fatalities continued with registering 3,809 new cases along with 43 deaths recorded across the country in the last 24 hours, the DGHS said.
On Sunday's health bulletin on coronavirus, DGHS additional director general (administration) Prof Dr Nasima Sultana said a total of 18,099 samples were tested in 65 out of 68 labs across the country as three other labs did not submit report on their activities.
With the tests, a total of 730,197 samples have so far been tested across the country.
Of the tests, some 3,809 samples were found COVID-19 positive along with 43 more deaths recorded across the country during the period, she said.
With these numbers, the overall tally of confirmed cases and deaths rose to 137787 and 1738 respectively, she said.
The DGHS sources said 64,598 people now remain in both home and institutional quarantine, while 14,523 others in isolation.
Simultaneously, some 1,409 people recovered from the respiratory disease, taking the overall number of recovery to 55,727, according to the source.
Globally, over 10.1 million people were infected with the novel coronavirus and 501,968 have died until Wednesday 7:00 pm, according to Worldometer data.
