A new variant sweeps across the country, Causing havoc and claiming lives in plenty. Cheap vaccine remains out of reach for the poor, Further delay showing COVID the exit door.
COVID-19 situation in Bangladesh has turned worst. On July 1, 143 patients died of COVID-19 related complications, highest number of death from COVID1. Death tally reached 14646 on July 01. Over the past one week, every day more than 100 people succumbed to COVID. Delta variant is doing most of the havoc. 80% of the patients tested turned out to be infected with this deadly variant, according to IEEDCR.In addition, number of confirmed COVID-19 patients crossed 900,000 mark. THE last 100,000 were detected in 29 days2 2. This is an indication how fast COVID-19 spreads across the country.
Propagation deteriorated in the South-Western districts where Bangladesh shares a long border with India and where some parts are not fenced by India. This is where "flesh corridor" straddles and smuggling activities are vernacular. These border districts are hardly hit by COVID. Mango-producing districts topped the list of detection and death. South-Western districts surpassed them later. Now, Dhaka and Chattogram are witnessing a gradual rise in the number of death.
Situation was so dire that government imposed a week-long lockdown, deploying Army across the country. It is a desperate attempt to cut the spiraling trend of death and infection. Before the lockdown came into effect, thousands of people had rushed to ferry-ghat, finding whatever means available to them amid suspension of regular transport services. Bakri-Eid is about take place on Mid-July. So greater number of people left Dhaka. A South China Morning Post video how people thronged ferries violating social distancing rules. Like previous exodus, motor-bike and private-car ride sharing service provider made fortune out of people misery. Law enforcement personnel was overwhelmed by the sheer number of people and haplessly watched them leaving the city.
It is also important to note that in recent months government increased number of testing centers and hospitals. They got RT PCR machine and centralized oxygen system. So number of test and hospitalized patients increased. It means many people living in the society with virus showing no symptoms. It is indeed worrying. Earlier common people shirked COVID rules saying" Goriber to kotona hoe na(Poor people do not catch Corona)". Rising number of death and detection rate proved how wrong they are.
Furthermore, in a densely populated country, Bangladesh is among the top 10 countries in terms of highest number of people living in per square kilometer, it is impossible to maintain social distancing rules. Not only that most of the people engage in labor-intensive task and informal sector. With scanty savings they cannot stay away from doing their job observing COVID rules. Rent seeking activities of some quarter in key cities also complicated the matter. Roadside bazar, overcrowded slum and shared accommodation played a role in worsening the propagation.
So more number of unidentified COVID patients may be roaming in the society further spreading the virus.
It is a difficult task for law-enforcement personnel with few COVID-protection gears to oblige others obey COVID related rules. Lesson learnt from firs round of COVID battle is that lack of safety gears cost lives of doctors and caregivers. A country cannot recuperate that loss. It is not that easy to churn out such professionals with that level of experience and expertise. It takes a lot of time to groom them.
Lots of Police also died while performing their duties amid pandemic last year. Only small part of them got vaccinated. They are vulnerable to COVID as they have to tackle it from the ground.
Vaccination program came to an abrupt halt after US had stopped sending RNA messenger to India. Bangladesh signed an agreement with Serum Institute of India for delivery of 30 million ampoules of AstraZeneca vaccine. It only received 7 million doses before the US ban on ingredient export came into effect. Following the debacle, government entered negotiations with China, Russia and USA for vaccine. Sinopharm's vaccine purchase was confirmed. In addition, US sent 2.5 million doses of Moderna vaccine. Earlier Bangladesh had taken delivery of 2 million doses of Pfizer vaccine from GAVI. These are signs of goodwill, sent in small batches. But Bangladesh needs bulk amount of vaccine.
Some countries in the Middle East where large number of Bangladeshis work made it clear they would not allow migrant worker who had jab of non-Western vaccine.So many Bangladeshis went through costly quarantine procedure in spite of having Sinopharm's vaccine. Government decided to give them Pfizer vaccine.
Commitment to finance vaccination program is plenty. But it is not clear how many doses one individual requires as variant after variant doing their damage. For poorer countries it is not possible to purchase additional booster shot that costs more than $ 10 . Local production could be a solution as cost will be reduced significantly. Despite repeated pleas of calling the vaccine a global public good and relaxing the TRIPS laws, no progress has been made. This will give fresh fuel to protectionism and globalization will receive another blow. Moreover, critics of globalization will point out that it is a one way track and in terms of crisis this globalization does not work for poorer countries. So a vaccine for the poor is a must. As deadly variants loom large and new bout of wave may wreck havoc, an ideal vaccine should not cost more than couple of dollars ( under $5 ). As there is no alternative to mass vaccination, cheap credit and grant should be made available to poorer countries so that they can continue the vaccination program at ease.
The newer deadly variants test the ability of health system to cope with COVID. At the same time it brought to fore unevenness of globalization in terms of vaccine production and distribution. Unless it is addressed urgently, we may end up living in a compartmentalized world where showing the COVID the exit door will be further delayed.
-----------------------------------------------Notes and References:
1. "Sob record chhariye ek dine koronai mrityu 143(143 die one day making a record)", Daily Ittefaq,July 01, 2021.
2."Akranto 9 lakh chharalo, kal theke kathor bidhinishedh(Cases crossed 900000, Strict lockdown from tomorrow)", Daily Prothom Alo, June 30,2021.
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