Bangladesh
Chittagong Covid-19 ICU scarcity in Chittagong amid rising Covid-19 cases
Dhaka, June 25: With the unrelenting coronavirus pandemic showing no signs of slowing down, Bangadesh is witnessing a surge in daily infection and death rates. One of the worst hit division is Chittagong. While patient pressure has increased in the hospitals, the ICU department of the hospitals are under the most pressure.
According to the Civil Surgeon's Office, there is not a single bed in the ICU department of Chittagong General Hospital for Covid-19 patients. The situation is same in mother and child hospital. Only three ICU beds in the Corona unit of Chittagong Medical College (CMC) Hospital are vacant. However, ICU beds are vacant in some private hospitals, said Dr Sheikh Fazle Rabbi, a civil surgeon.
High flow nasal canola from ICU is used more in the treatment of corona patients, he said. Holy Crescent Hospital (Unit 2 of General Hospital) has 10 ICU beds ready. These will be introduced if necessary.
According to the Civil Surgeon's Office, 2,427 people have been diagnosed with coronavirus in Chittagong till June 14. In the next 10 days, another 948 people tested positive for the deadly virus. In May, 3,515 coronavirus patients were identified across the district.
According to the latest data, the detection rate in the district is 28.07 percent. As such, the rate of infection is expected to increase in the remaining six days of this month.
Hospital officials said that the number of corona patients admitted to the hospital has increased significantly in the last 15 days. Most of the admitted patients need ICU facility. So there is a lot of pressure in this section.
Dr. Abdur Rob Masum, Head of Corona Unit of Chittagong General Hospital said, "The pressure of hospital admissions has increased a lot. So far, a total of 82 new patients have been admitted in the corona unit of the hospital. The hospital has 16 ICU beds. At present patients are admitted in all of them. So even though ICU support is urgent for many new patients, we are not able to provide it."
He attributed the increase in coronavirus disease to poor hygiene. The doctor said crowds during Eid also helped the disease to spread.
