Government hospitals in at least 14 districts ran out of dedicated Covid beds, according to official estimates, while the high rate of infections continues with the detection of 12,148 new daily cases on Friday.

The daily cases represented nearly 29 per cent test positivity as 41,947 samples were tested during the last 24-hour reporting period until 8:00am on Friday.

The test positivity rate increased by nearly 2 per cent compared with the day before as the active case number crossed 1.5 lakh, the fourth-hieghest number of people currently infected with the coronavirus in Asia.

This was the fifth day Bangladesh logged over 12,000 cases in a row with over 1.5 lakh new cases detected in the first half of the month.

Covid-19 claimed 187 new lives, said the Directorate General of Health Service’s daily health update, while the overall number of lives lost to the viral disease rose to 17,465.

‘We increased dedicated Covid beds at hospitals several times but could not keep up with new cases,’ said Mymensingh divisional commissioner Shafiqur Reza Biswash.

The Covid-19 dashboard of the DGHS showed that 528 patients were admitted against 470 dedicated Covid beds in government hospitals in the division that had seen a rapid rise in Covid cases over the last two weeks.

Mymensingh Medical College Hospital is taking the division’s patients’ burden mostly as the government hospitals in the division’s four districts are ill-equipped and two of them even lack ICU facilities.

Until 9:43am on Friday, showed the Covid-19 dashboard, 440 patients were admitted at the MMCH against 230 dedicated Covid beds, including ICU beds.

A total of 463 people officially contracted Covid-19 in Mymensingh in the last 24-hour reporting cycle and experts said that 5 per cent of infected people might need hospitalisation.

New Age correspondent in Mymensingh confirmed 93 new admissions at Mymensingh Medical College Hospital in 24 hours till Friday morning.

New Age correspondent in Rajshahi reported that dedicated Covid beds at Rajshahi Medical College Hospital had been increased to 454 in phases from 165 since May.

But the hospital failed to keep up with new cases and currently 498 Covid patients remain admitted at the RMCH.

Hospitals running out of Covid beds in almost a fourth of Bangladesh are a grim reminder of the deteriorating Covid situation, which, the DGHS recently warned, would further worsen over the next few weeks following the lifting of movement curbs for Eid-ul-Azha.

The National Technical Advisory Committee on Covid-19 on Wednesday urged the government to open field hospitals saying that hospitals were already overflowing with Covid patients.

Institute of Epidemiology Disease Control And Research advisor Mushtuq Hussain found that the idea of setting up field hospitals with ICU facilities was not implementable amid a chronic shortage of medical equipment and skilled manpower.

‘It would be a waste of money for it would take a long time to make a functional field hospital,’ he said.

He suggested that the government should introduce community-based isolation centres using public infrastructure such as schools where patients with mild symptoms would be accepted, constantly monitored and given oxygen support before their condition turned critical.

The districts where government hospitals officially ran out of Covid beds are Bogura, Natore, Pabna, Rajshahi, Barishal, Chandpur, Khulna, Magura, Jashore, Magura, Mymensingh, Dinajpur, Thakurgaon and Sylhet.

Government hospitals in at least seven other districts are officially 90 per cent or more full.

Official estimates, however, are often an underestimation for some of the hospitals such as Dhaka Medical College Hospital still have vacant dedicated Covid beds in the official estimate but unofficially the beds filled up about a week ago.

Low testing capacity is also considered a reason for the underestimation by experts.

The DGHS in its daily health update estimated that 70 per cent of its overall general Covid beds and 80 per cent of ICU beds were already occupied.

On Friday, Barishal and Sylhet divisions reported to have detected Covid infection in 40 out of 100 samples, followed by Dhaka, Chattogram and Khulna divisions, where about 30 out of 100 samples turned out to be Covid positive.

Rajshahi and Rangpur divisions reported about 20 per cent test positivity.

The DGHS recently said that the ongoing infection is very likely to worsen after Eid on July 21 and warned of catastrophic consequences if infection continued spreading after hospitals ran out of their Covid beds.

Covid-19 so far infected 10,83,922 people after its emergence was