coronavirus outbreak
Homebound people flock at launch and bus terminals dreading ‘lockdown’
Homebound people have started swarming into cities' launch and bus terminals as the announcement of countrywide lockdown came on Saturday.
On Saturday morning, Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader said the government is set to announce a seven-day lockdown from Monday to stem the spread of coronavirus.
Since the declaration, people are dreading the suspension of all public transportation across the country and crowding at the bus and launch terminals.
Railways Minister MD Nurul Islam Sujan said passenger train services will remain suspended across the country during the countrywide lockdown period.
Joynal Abedin, joint director for Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) told UNB no announcement of suspending launch services has been made.
Also read: Govt to enforce 7-day lockdown from Monday: Quader
Yet dreading the upcoming suspension number of homebound people at the terminals has increased from this afternoon, said BIWTA’s joint director.
Sales manager of Hanif Paribahan bus service’s Kallyanpur counter, Nahid Hasan said bus counters were already packed with passengers as the bus owners were carrying 50 percent less passengers according to the Government’s order from Wednesday.
As the declaration of lockdown came today the crowd of passengers increased more, he said.
Unique bus service’s Gabtali counter man Sulaiman said, passengers are frightened about being stuck hence they are flocking at the ticket counters to leave the city within a day or two.
Covid-19 situation in Bangladesh
Amid an alarming surge in Covid-19 cases, Bangladesh recorded 5,683 fresh cases and 58 deaths in the last 24 hours until Saturday.
Also read: Covid-19: Bangladesh sees 5,638 cases, 58 more deaths
The infection rate slightly fell to 23.15 percent from 23.28 percent on Friday when the country recorded 6,830 cases, the highest since the beginning of the pandemic.
Bangladesh has so far recorded 630,277 coronavirus cases, according to a handout issued by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
During the 24-hour period until Saturday morning, 2,364 patients recovered, taking the number of recoveries to 549,775.
Meanwhile, the fatalities rose to 9,213 with the new deaths.
Fully vaccinated people can travel safely again, CDC says
Add travel to the activities vaccinated Americans can safely enjoy again, according to new U.S. guidance issued Friday.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its guidance to say fully vaccinated people can travel within the U.S. without getting tested for the coronavirus or going into quarantine afterward.
Still, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky urged caution and said she would “advocate against general travel overall" given the rising number of infections.
“If you are vaccinated, it is lower risk,” she said.
According to the CDC, nearly 100 million people in the U.S. — or about 30% of the population — have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. A person is considered fully vaccinated two weeks after receiving the last required dose.
Also read: Fully-vaccinated people can gather without masks: CDC
The agency had said it would update its guidance as more people got vaccinated and evidence mounted about the protection the shots provide.
“Every day you get more data, and you change your guidance," said Dr. Ali Khan, dean of the University of Nebraska's College of Public Health.
The CDC is sticking to its guidance for unvaccinated people to avoid unnecessary travel. If they do travel, the agency says to get tested one to three days before the trip, and three to five days after. People should also stay home and quarantine for seven days after travel, even if their COVID-19 test is negative, the agency says.
The new guidance says:
— Fully vaccinated people can travel within the U.S., without getting tested for the coronavirus or quarantining. People should still wear a mask, socially distance and avoid crowds, the agency says.
— For international travel, the agency says vaccinated people do not need to get a COVID-19 test before leaving, unless the destination country requires it.
— For travelers coming into the U.S., vaccinated people should still get a negative COVID-19 test before boarding a flight, and be tested three to five days after arrival. They do not need to quarantine. The agency noted the potential introduction of virus variants and differences in vaccine coverage around the world for the cautious guidance on overseas travel.
Also read: CDC: Strong evidence in-person schooling can be done safely
Already, air travel in the United States has been picking back up. Although traffic remains down by nearly half from a year ago, more than 1 million travelers daily have been going through U.S. airports in recent weeks.
Airlines do not require COVID-19 tests or proof of vaccination for travel in the U.S.
The CDC cited recent research on the real-world effects of the vaccines for its updated guidance. Last month, the agency said fully vaccinated people could visit with each other indoors without wearing masks or social distancing. It also said vaccinated people could visit with unvaccinated people from a single household under similar conditions, as long as the unvaccinated individuals were at low risk for severe illness if infected.
The U.S. began its vaccine rollout in mid-December. Vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna require two doses given a few weeks apart. A one-shot vaccine by Johnson & Johnson was given the green light by regulators at the end of February.
Covid-19: Dhaka, Chattogram among 29 districts with higher transmission
The Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) has identified 29 districts, including Dhaka and Chattogram, with higher rates of Coronavirus transmission.
The areas have been dubbed ‘risky places’ considering the high number of Covid-19 cases.
Narayanganj, Gazipur, Nilphamari, Rajshahi, Naogaon, Sylhet and Khulna are also on the list of risky districts, according to DGHS.
Also read: Proposed partial lockdown in areas with high Covid-19 cases: Health Minister
Prof ABM Khurshid Alam, director-general of the health directorate, disclosed the findings after announcing an 18-point directive on behalf of the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) in a virtual press conference in the afternoon.
"Considering the level of transmission, the local administration can decide whether lockdown is necessary for any certain area or not,” he said. “But there was no decision on announcing general holiday.”
WHO report says animals likely source of COVID
A joint WHO-China study on the origins of COVID-19 says that transmission of the virus from bats to humans through another animal is the most likely scenario and that a lab leak is “extremely unlikely,” according to a draft copy obtained by The Associated Press.
The findings offer little new insight into how the virus first emerged and leave many questions unanswered, though that was as expected. But the report does provide more detail on the reasoning behind the researchers’ conclusions. The team proposed further research in every area except the lab leak hypothesis.
The report, which is expected to be made public Tuesday, is being closely watched since discovering the origins of the virus could help scientists prevent future pandemics — but it’s also extremely sensitive since China bristles at any suggestion that it is to blame for the current one. Repeated delays in the report’s release have raised questions about whether the Chinese side was trying to skew its conclusions.
“We’ve got real concerns about the methodology and the process that went into that report, including the fact that the government in Beijing apparently helped to write it,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a recent CNN interview.
China rejected that criticism Monday.
“The U.S. has been speaking out on the report. By doing this, isn’t the U.S. trying to exert political pressure on the members of the WHO expert group?” asked Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian.
The report is based largely on a visit by a WHO team of international experts to Wuhan, the Chinese city where COVID-19 was first detected, from mid-January to mid-February.
Also read: COVID-19 not necessarily crossed from animals into humans in Wuhan: WHO expert
In the draft obtained by the AP, the researchers listed four scenarios in order of likelihood for the emergence of the coronavirus named SARS-CoV-2. Topping the list was transmission from bats through another animal, which they said was likely to very likely. They evaluated direct spread from bats to humans as likely, and said that spread through “cold-chain” food products was possible but not likely.
Bats are known to carry coronaviruses and, in fact, the closest relative of the virus that causes COVID-19 has been found in bats. However, the report says that “the evolutionary distance between these bat viruses and SARS-CoV-2 is estimated to be several decades, suggesting a missing link.”
It said highly similar viruses have been found in pangolins, which are another kind of mammal, but also noted that mink and cats are susceptible to the COVID-19 virus, suggesting they could be carriers, too.
The AP received the draft copy on Monday from a Geneva-based diplomat from a WHO-member country. It wasn’t clear whether the report might still be changed prior to release, though the diplomat said it was the final version. A second diplomat confirmed getting the report too. Both refused to be identified because they were not authorized to release it ahead of publication.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus acknowledged that he had received the report over the weekend and said it would be formally presented Tuesday.
“We will read the report and discuss, digest its content and next steps with member states,” Tedros told a news conference in Geneva. “But as I have said, all hypotheses are on the table and warrant complete and further studies from what I have seen so far.”
Also read: WHO expert skeptical coronavirus leaked from controversial Wuhan lab
He declined to comment on whether political pressure had influenced the report.
The draft report is inconclusive on whether the outbreak started at a Wuhan seafood market that had one of the earliest clusters of cases in December 2019.
The discovery of other cases before the Huanan market outbreak suggests it may have started elsewhere. But the report notes there could have been milder cases that went undetected and that could be a link between the market and earlier cases.
“No firm conclusion therefore about the role of the Huanan market in the origin of the outbreak, or how the infection was introduced into the market, can currently be drawn,” the report said.
The market was an early suspect because some stalls sold a range of animals — and some wondered if they had brought the new virus to Wuhan. The report noted that a range of animal products — including everything from bamboo rats to deer, often frozen — were sold at the market, as were live crocodiles.
As the pandemic spread globally, China found samples of the virus on the packaging of frozen food coming into the country and, in some cases, have tracked localized outbreaks to them.
The report said that the cold chain, as it is known, can be a driver of long-distance virus spread but was skeptical it could have triggered the outbreak. The report says the risk is lower than through human-to-human respiratory infection, and most experts agree.
Also read: What the WHO coronavirus experts learned in Wuhan
“While there is some evidence for possible reintroduction of SARS-CoV-2 through handling of imported contaminated frozen products in China since the initial pandemic wave, this would be extraordinary in 2019 where the virus was not widely circulating,” the study said.
The report cited several reasons for all but dismissing the possibility the virus escaped from a lab in Wuhan, a speculative theory that was suggested and promoted by former U.S. President Donald Trump among others.
It said such laboratory accidents are rare and the labs in Wuhan working on coronaviruses and vaccines are well-managed. It also noted that there is no record of viruses closely related to SARS-CoV-2 in any laboratory before December 2019 and that the risk of accidentally growing the virus was extremely low.
New variant may be behind Covid surge in Bangladesh: Experts
Amid a sudden upsurge in coronavirus cases, health experts fear that a highly transmissible variant of the deadly virus might have appeared in Bangladesh through mutations.
They think a comprehensive study and genome squeezing is necessary to examine whether the mutations have led to the new variant contributing to the upsurge in Covid cases in Bangladesh.
Meanwhile, a team of Bangladeshi researchers in collaboration with Monash University in Malaysia found that coronavirus mutated 4,604 times in Bangladesh from April to December last year.
Examining 371 genome sequences of the virus, they found 34 unique mutations in Bangladesh.
The researchers laid emphasis on conducting more research on the unique mutations as they think any of them can be deadlier and the cause of the recent spike in the virus cases.
Also read: Virus variants, vaccine inequity responsible for rising Covid caseload: WHO
Causes behind the fresh wave of COVID-19 in Bangladesh
Talking to UNB, noted virologist Nazrul Islam, a member of the national technical advisory committee formed to tackle Covid-19, said it seems that a fresh wave of the coronavirus has begun in the country.
A year into pandemic, veterans halls 'barely hanging' on
Paul Guilbeault knew the writing was on the wall for the last Veterans of Foreign Wars post in this city south of Boston when businesses across Massachusetts were ordered to close as the coronavirus pandemic took hold last March.
Don’t use weather as a basis to relax COVID-19 control measures: WMO
The current onset of warmer temperatures in the northern hemisphere, should not be used as a trigger to relax measures to halt the spread of coronavirus, the UN weather agency cautioned on Thursday.
Police promise ‘flawless security’ at Ekushey Boi Mela
Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) will provide three-tier security around the Amar Ekushey Book Fair premises.
Why the pandemic left long-term scars on global job market
Esther Montanez’s housecleaning job at the Hilton Back Bay in Boston was a lifeline for her, a 31-year-old single mother with a 5-year-old son.
Global rise in childhood mental health issues amid pandemic
By the time his parents rushed him to the hospital, 11-year-old Pablo was barely eating and had stopped drinking entirely. Weakened by months of self-privation, his heart had slowed to a crawl and his kidneys were faltering. Medics injected him with fluids and fed him through a tube — first steps toward stitching together yet another child coming apart amid the tumult of the coronavirus crisis.