COVID-19
Covid 19: Movement of tourist ships on Teknaf-St Martin's route suspended
Movement of all tourist ships on Teknaf-Saint Martin's Island route has been suspended in the wake of fresh surge in Covid-19 cases.
However, movement of other vessels carrying regular passengers and daily essentials will remain normal, subjected to maintaining health guidelines.
Cox's Bazar district administration issued a directive in this regard on Thursday.
Also read: Covid-19: Bangladesh records highest-ever daily cases, 59 deaths
Cox's Bazar Deputy Commissioner Md Mamunur Rashid said that tourist ships usually operate till March 31 every year.
This period was extended by 15 days but due to the corona situation tourist ships movement has been stopped from Thursday.
Amjad Hossain, coordinator of the Teknaf station of the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport (BIWTA), said eight ships were approved to carry tourists on Teknaf-Saint Martin’s route from November 12 last year.
Also read: Bangladesh bans entry of passengers from Europe & 12 countries for two weeks
But the service has been suspended due to the recent hike in coronavirus cases.
Teknaf Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Parvez Chowdhury said strict legal actions will be taken if this decision is disobeyed.
Covid-19: BNP’s Rizvi shifted to ICU
BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, who has been undergoing treatment at Square Hospitals for the past two weeks with Covid-19 infections l, was shifted to Intensive Care Unit (ICU) as his condition worsened.
Rizvi’s oxygen level has dropped below 70, causing breathing problems l, said BNP Health Affairs Secretary Rafiqul Islam.
Also read: BNP’s Rizvi hospitalised with Covid-19
Besides, he said the BNP senior joint secretary general is also suffering from fever and cough. “He (Rizvi) was taken to the ICU of the hospital around 2:30 pm.”
On March 18, Rizvi was admitted to the Square Hospitals with high fever and cough caused by the coronavirus infections. He tested positive for the virus on March 17.
Also read: BNP leader Mosharraf, wife infected with Covid-19
Meanwhile, BNP Standing Committee member Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain and his wife Bilkis Akhter was also admitted to the same hospital with coronavirus infections on Wednesday night.
No alternative to increasing hospital capacity: Health Minister
Health Minister Zahid Maleque has said that there is no alternative to increasing the capacities of hospitals to tackle the surge in Covid-19 cases.
“There’s no alternative to increasing the number of hospital beds as Covid cases are increasing day by day. That’s why the government is increasing the number of beds at all covid-dedicated hospitals,” he said while inaugurating 10 ICU beds at Dhaka Medical College Hospital at an online event.
He said the number of covid-designated hospitals are also being increased.
Also read: Covid-19: Bangladesh records highest-ever daily cases, 59 deaths
Minister Maleque said that a market of Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) has been turned into a Covid-dedicated hospital with 1,250-bed capacity.
“There are 50 ICU beds and 200 SDO beds,” he said. “It also has 1,000 isolation beds.”
Maleque said the number of covid beds is being increased at government hospitals in the capital.
Also read: Avoid public gatherings, wear masks to fight Covid surge, PM urges all
In this regard, the minister said that 10 more ICU beds have been added to Dhaka Medical College Hospital today.
Covid-19: Bangladesh records highest-ever daily cases, 59 deaths
For the third time in four days, Bangladesh recorded its highest daily coronavirus cases as the health authorities confirmed 6,469 new infections on Thursday afternoon.
The infection rate jumped to 22.94 percent from 19.9 of Wednesday’s when the country recorded 5,358 cases, the highest in months.
On Tuesday, 5,042 cases were recorded and the number was 5,181 on Monday.
Also read: Avoid public gatherings, wear masks to fight Covid surge, PM urges all
Bangladesh had seen a sharp decline in cases and the daily infection rate dropped below 5 percent but the sudden spurt appears to have caught the health sector unawares. There is hardly any bed available at hospitals treating coronavirus patients.
The country’s covid caseload soared to 617,764 after it recorded its highest-ever single day case count, according to a handout issued by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
During the 24-hour period until Thursday morning, 2,539 coronavirus patients recovered, taking the number of recoveries to 544,938.
Bangladesh reported its first cases on March 8 last year and confirmed the first death from the virus 10 days later.
The country has so far tested 4,698,774 samples, including 28,198 in the last 24 hours, the DGHS said.
Dhaka sees highest deaths
Meanwhile, the fatalities reached 9,105 with 59 new deaths. The mortality rate slipped slightly to 1.47 percent.
Coronavirus claimed 568 lives in January this year, 281 in February and 638 in March.
Among the latest victims, 40 people died in Dhaka division, five in Chattogram, two each in Rajshahi and Rangpur, four in Khulna, one in Barishal and five in Sylhet division.
So far, 5,192 coronavirus patients died in Dhaka division, 1,645 in Chattogram, 506 in Rajshahi, 586 in Khulna, 274 in Barishal, 325 in Sylhet, 376 in Rangpur and 201 in Mymensingh divisions.
So far 6,847 men (75.20) and 2,258 women (24.80) died of the virus.
Also read: New variant may be behind Covid surge in Bangladesh: Experts
Govt strengthens protective steps
The daily surge prompted the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) to issue an 18-point directive on Monday to prevent the virus’ transmission.
On the same day, the Health Ministry proposed strict measures like partial lockdowns for some places with higher Covid-19 transmission rates.
Other recommendations made by the ministry include closure of amusement centres, picnic spots, religious gatherings, limiting wedding ceremonies, strengthening quarantine systems, limiting passengers in public transports, and limiting attendance in offices.
It also suggested strong enforcement of the ‘no mask no service’ policy, increasing numbers of mobile courts and slapping fines on health guideline violators.
The administrations in various districts have shut down the amusement centres and are urging people to mask up. But a large number of people are still reluctant to follow covid health guidelines, putting themselves and others around them at risk.
Vaccination drive
The government launched a countrywide vaccination campaign on February 7 with doses received from the Serum Institute of India.
Bangladesh inked an agreement with Serum in December last year for 30 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine. Serum is supposed to supply the doses between January and June this year – 5 million each month.
Also read: Covid surge in Bangladesh: Experts for tightening the grip with nighttime curfew
Global situation
Coronavirus cases were first reported in China in December 2019. Since then, countries around the world have reported 128.8 million cases and 2.8 million deaths so far, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
A number of vaccines have been developed to fight the virus. Most notable of them are those made by Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Oxford-AstraZeneca.
Company at heart of J&J vaccine woes has series of citations
The company at the center of quality problems that led Johnson & Johnson to discard an unknown amount of its coronavirus vaccine has a string of citations from U.S. health officials for quality control problems.
Emergent BioSolutons, a little-known company at the center of the vaccine supply chain, was a key to Johnson & Johnson’s plan to deliver 100 million doses of its vaccine to the U.S. by the end of May. But the company has been cited repeatedly by the Food and Drug Administration for problems such as poorly trained employees, cracked vials and mold around one of its facilities, according to records obtained by The Associated Press through the Freedom of Information Act. The records cover inspections at Emergent facilities since 2017.
Johnson & Johnson said Wednesday that a batch of vaccine made by Emergent at its Baltimore factory, known as Bayview, can’t be used because it didn’t meet quality standards. It wasn’t clear exactly how many doses were involved or how the problem would affect future delivers of J&J’s vaccine. The company said in a statement it was still planning to deliver 100 million doses by the end of June and was “aiming to deliver those doses by the end of May.”
J&J locked arms with Emergent in April 2020, enlisting the lesser-known company to manufacture the vaccine J&J was developing with federal funding. At the time, Emergent’s Bayview facility wasn’t scaled for making millions of doses of a potential COVID-19 vaccine, according to the FDA records that describe the plant as a contract testing laboratory that “did not manufacture products for distribution.” Upgrades in technology and personnel were required before Bayview could begin making what’s known as “drug substance” material for the vaccine, a two-month process during which the required biological cells are grown.
Also read: EU regulator approves J&J’s one-shot COVID-19 vaccine
The FDA inspected Emergent’s Bayview plant in April 2020, just as the agreement with J&J was being announced. The federal agency criticized the company for problems with its testing of a potential treatment for anthrax, according to the records obtained by the AP. The FDA’s lead investigator cited the company for failing to train employees “in the particular operations they perform as part of their function and current good manufacturing practices.”
On the same day, Johnson & Johnson, in a separate news release, heralded its partnership with Emergent as a step toward the pharmaceutical giant’s goal of supplying more than 1 billion doses of the vaccine globally by the end of 2021.
Other problems cited by the FDA during the April 2020 inspection included failures by the Bayview plant “to ensure that electronically held data generated during analytical testing” of material “was protected from deletion or manipulation.” The FDA’s lead investigator, Marcellinus Dordunoo, wrote that Emergent hadn’t investigated what he described as “data integrity concerns.”
The inspection was the most recent in a series of critical reports from the FDA about Emergent, including one following a December 2017 inspection at a plant in Canton, Massachusetts, in which the FDA said the company hadn’t corrected “continued low level mold and yeast isolates” found in the facility. Nearly a year later, agency investigators questioned why Emergent had “an unwritten policy of not conducting routine compliance audits” at a separate plant in Baltimore, known as Camden, where an anthrax vaccine is filled into vials.
Also read: Merck to help produce rival J&J’s COVID-19 vaccine
Emergent’s revenues skyrocketed during the Trump administration, jumping from around $523 million in 2015 to more than $1.5 billion in 2020. The company has invested heavily in lobbying the federal government, according to disclosure records, which show the company spent $3.6 million on lobbying in 2020 alone.
Emergent is one of about 10 companies that Johnson & Johnson is using to speed up manufacturing of its recently approved vaccine, the company said. The Bayview factory where the tainted vaccine ingredient was found had not yet been approved by the FDA, so no vaccine in circulation is affected. Emergent declined to comment.
President Joe Biden has pledged to have enough vaccines for all U.S. adults by the end of May. The U.S. government has ordered enough two-dose shots from Pfizer and Moderna to vaccinate 200 million people to be delivered by late May, plus the 100 million single-dose shots from J&J.
A federal official said Wednesday evening the administration’s goal can be met without additional J&J doses.
A J&J spokesman said earlier Wednesday that the company met the end-of-March goal, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s online vaccine tracker showed J&J had provided about 6.8 million doses to the U.S. vaccine effort. J&J has been shipping finished vaccines from its factory in the Netherlands to the U.S.
Also read: FDA says single-dose shot from J&J prevents severe COVID
J&J said it was putting more of its manufacturing and quality experts inside Emergent’s factory to supervise production of the COVID-19 vaccine, a move meant to enable delivery of an additional 24 million vaccine doses through April.
J&J said it still expects to deliver more than 1 billion vaccine doses globally by the end of the year.
The J&J vaccine has been viewed as crucial for vaccination campaigns around the world, because only one shot is required and it can be shipped and stored at standard refrigeration temperatures, unlike some other vials that must be kept frozen. The company also has pledged to sell the vaccine without a profit, but only during the pandemic emergency.
The problem with the vaccine batch was first reported by The New York Times. The FDA said it was aware of the situation but declined further comment.
Avoid public gatherings, wear masks to fight Covid surge, PM urges all
EdsSeeking cooperation from all to check the rapid transmission of coronavirus, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Thursday urged people to avoid public gatherings, unnecessary outside stay and wear face masks everywhere.
“This time the virus is spreading very rapidly. This resurgence is not only seen in our country but also throughout the world. So, I would like to tell all that we’ll have to check the coronavirus again this time as we controlled everything in the first time,” she told Parliament.
The Prime Minister made the call participating in the discussion over the condolence motion placed in the first sitting of the 12th session of Parliament at the death of MP Mahmud Us Samad Chowdhury (Sylhet-3).
She said though coronavirus was largely controlled in Bangladesh initially, the sudden surge in the virus infection has recently been seen as people ignored hygiene rules after the Covid-19 inoculation programme started.
Sheikh Hasina said public movement and gatherings went up excessively, though she repeatedly asked all to wear masks and follow the health rules even after getting vaccinated.
Noting that the government has already issued some directives to check the transmission of Covid-19, she said, “We’re trying to bring it under control gradually. But cooperation from people is needed in this regard.”
“I would like to request to pay special attention so that no public gathering takes place anywhere,” she said.
She suggested all to avoid large gatherings of people in social programmes like wedding and return home within a short time after completing their tasks in shops and markets.
“I would like to request all, no matter who is infected or not (by Covid-19), to wear masks always,” said the Prime Minister.
The Prime Minister suggested people to take the hot water steam and use mustard oil in their nose. Though the use of mustard oil is rural practice, it can be effective in many cases, she said.
“I always use mustard oil in my nose whenever go outside after the outbreak of Coronavirus,” she added.
Also read:PM issues directives to tackle Covid-19
Bangladesh bans entry of passengers from Europe & 12 countries for two weeks
In an effort to contain Covid-19 in the country, the civil aviation regulator on Thursday banned the entry of passengers from all European nations, except the UK, and 12 other countries, to Bangladesh from April 3.
The twelve countries are Argentina, Bahrain, Brazil, Chile, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Peru, Qatar, South Africa, Turkey and Uruguay, the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) said in a release.
The CAAB has issued the circular after reviewing the ongoing Covid-19 situation throughout the country and worldwide. The entry ban will be in force from April 3 to April 18.
Airlines operating scheduled passenger flights from all the above-mentioned countries will be allowed to carry only transit passengers to Bangladesh, subject to the conditions that they remain confined inside the terminal building only.
Irrespective of the Covid-19 vaccination, all passengers coming to Bangladesh shall mandatorily possess and show ‘PCR-based Covid-19 negative certificate’ during departure from origin and on arrival at an airport in this country.
Also read: 14-day institutional quarantine mandatory for travellers from European countries: CAAB
The PCR test shall be done within 72 hours of the flight departure time. If no Covid-19 symptoms are found on arrival, passengers shall strictly have to complete a 14-day home quarantine, the regulator said.
However, if any Covid-19 symptoms are detected, passengers shall have to undergo mandatory 14 days isolation at government facilities at their own expenses.
Passengers coming from other countries, that's except those mentioned earlier, and exiting from the transit at the airport, shall have to obtain a fresh Covid-19 negative certificate as the existing one would be deemed null and void.
Also read: Now restrictions lifted on domestic flights: CAAB
In addition, on arrival in Bangladesh, all such passengers shall have to complete mandatory four days institutional quarantine at government facilities or government-approved hotels at their own expenses.
Also read: Migrant workers’ protests: CAAB permits operation of more Saudi Airlines flights
Samples will be collected for the Covid-19 PCR test and the passenger will be released to complete the 14 days' home quarantine (including the institutional quarantine) if the result is negative.
Covid surge in Bangladesh: Experts for tightening the grip with nighttime curfew
As Bangladesh is experiencing record-breaking Covid cases, experts think ‘health emergency’, ‘nighttime curfew’ and area-based lockdown can be the right measures to slow down the virus transmission.
They think the 18-point directive issued by the government on Monday is not enough as the coronavirus situation is going from bad to worse with both high infection and mortality rates in the country.
The experts warned that Bangladesh may experience an ‘explosive’ Covid situation in the coming months, breaking down the already overwhelmed medical system, if unnecessary public movements and mass gatherings cannot be controlled with the strict enforcement of laws.
They also suggested ramping up contact tracing, mass testing, expanding ICU capacity and ensuring necessary treatment facilities and equipment in every hospital, including upazila health complexes, since the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) has identified 31 districts as risky for the virus outbreak with a high infection rate.
Directives not matching with ground realities
Public health expert MH Chowdhury (Lenin), chairman of the medicine department at Health and Hope Hospital, the government’s directives are inconsistent with the coronavirus transmission pace.
“When it’s necessary to stop all the social and political gatherings right now, it was said to be discouraged in the directives. When a nighttime curfew should be enforced from 6pm, people are only asked not to come out of their homes unnecessarily. The shopping malls should be allowed to remain open for at best six hours on a limited scale, but the government said both sellers and buyers in shopping malls must follow the health rules,” he said.
MH Chowdhury said all types of mass gatherings should be controlled strictly, but the government asked to hold public exams maintaining health hygiene rules, which is not possible.
“People are discouraged to go to tourist and recreation spots, movie houses and theatres, and all kinds of fairs. But the Ekushey Book Fair is going on in full swing,” he pointed out.
Dr Lenin said the government has instructed all to maintain health safety rules in public transport, but people do not do that for lack of monitoring. “Strong enforcement of law is necessary to force people to abide by those rules.”
Dr Be-Nazir Ahmed, former director (disease control) of the DGHS, said, “The directives are not time-befitting and consistent with the current pandemic situation. “These instructions should have been given at least one month back when the virus cases started surging.”
Dr Be-Nazir said when elections can be held amid such a situation how the government can ask people not to arrange social programmes and mass gatherings.
Also read: Covid-19: Bangladesh’s caseload now 529,031, fatalities 7,942
Pfizer says its COVID-19 vaccine protects younger teens
Pfizer announced Wednesday that its COVID-19 vaccine is safe and strongly protective in kids as young as 12, a step toward possibly beginning shots in this age group before they head back to school in the fall.
Most COVID-19 vaccines being rolled out worldwide are for adults, who are at higher risk from the coronavirus. Pfizer’s vaccine is authorized for ages 16 and older. But vaccinating children of all ages will be critical to stopping the pandemic — and helping schools, at least the upper grades, start to look a little more normal after months of disruption.
In the vaccine study of 2,260 U.S. volunteers ages 12 to 15, preliminary data showed there were no cases of COVID-19 among fully vaccinated adolescents compared to 18 among those given dummy shots, Pfizer reported.
It’s a small study, that hasn’t yet been published, so another important piece of evidence is how well the shots revved up the kids’ immune systems. Researchers reported high levels of virus-fighting antibodies, somewhat higher than were seen in studies of young adults.
Kids had side effects similar to young adults, the company said. The main side effects are pain, fever, chills and fatigue, particularly after the second dose. The study will continue to track participants for two years for more information about long-term protection and safety.
Dr. Philip J. Landrigan of Boston College said the results are encouraging.
“It’s hard to get kids to comply with masking and distancing, so something that gives them hard protection and takes them out of the mix of spreading the virus is all for the good,” said Landrigan, who was not involved in the study.
Also read: Hong Kong halts use of Pfizer vaccine, cites defective lids
It’s another positive development in the race against the virus even as U.S. cases, at 66,000 new infections a day, are rising again and deaths are averaging nearly 1,000 a day. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Dr. Rochelle Walensky warned Americans again Wednesday that “we can’t afford to let our guard down.”
Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech in the coming weeks plan to ask the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and European regulators to allow emergency use of the shots starting at age 12.
“We share the urgency to expand the use of our vaccine,” Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said in a statement. He expressed “the hope of starting to vaccinate this age group before the start of the next school year” in the United States.
Pfizer isn’t the only company seeking to lower the age limit for its vaccine. Results also are expected by the middle of this year from a U.S. study of Moderna’s vaccine in 12- to 17-year-olds.
But in a sign that the findings were promising, the FDA already allowed both companies to begin U.S. studies in children 11 and younger, working their way to as young as 6-month-old.
Also read: US approves Pfizer vaccine storage for 2 weeks at higher temperature
“We are longing for a normal life. This is especially true for our children,” BioNTech CEO Ugur Sahin said in a statement.
AstraZeneca last month began a study of its vaccine among 6- to 17-year-olds in Britain. Johnson & Johnson is planning its own pediatric studies. And in China, Sinovac recently announced it has submitted preliminary data to Chinese regulators showing its vaccine is safe in children as young as 3.
While most COVID-19 vaccines being used globally were first tested in tens of thousands of adults, pediatric studies won’t need to be nearly as large. Scientists have safety information from those studies and from subsequent vaccinations in millions more adults.
One key question is the dosage: Pfizer gave the 12-and-older participants the same dose adults receive, while testing different doses in younger children.
It’s not clear how quickly the FDA would act on Pfizer’s request to allow vaccination starting at age 12. The agency has taken about three weeks to review and authorize each of the vaccines currently available for adults. That process included holding a public meeting of outside experts to review and vote on the safety and effectiveness of each shot.
Also read: Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine works well in big 'real world' test
The process for reviewing data in children could be shorter, given FDA’s familiarity with each vaccine. An agency spokeswoman said the FDA had no information to share on how the review would work, including whether additional public meetings would be required.
Another question is when the country would have enough supply of shots — and people to get them into adolescents’ arms — to let kids start getting in line.
Supplies are set to steadily increase over the spring and summer, at the same time states are opening vaccinations to younger, healthier adults who until now haven’t had a turn.
Children represent about 13% of COVID-19 cases documented in the U.S. And while children are far less likely than adults to get seriously ill, at least 268 have died from COVID-19 in the U.S. alone and more than 13,500 have been hospitalized, according to a tally by the American Academy of Pediatrics. That’s more than die from the flu in an average year. Additionally, a small number have developed a serious inflammatory condition linked to the coronavirus.
Caleb Chung, who turns 13 later this week, agreed to volunteer after his father, a Duke University pediatrician, presented the option. He doesn’t know if he received the vaccine or a placebo.
“Usually I’m just at home doing online school and there’s not much I can really do to fight back against the virus,” Caleb said in a recent interview. The study “was really somewhere that I could actually help out.”
His father, Dr. Richard Chung, said he’s proud of his son and all the other children volunteering for the needle pricks, blood tests and other tasks a study entails.
“We need kids to do these trials so that kids can get protected. Adults can’t do that for them,” Chung said.
Boi Mela to be open for 3.5 hours a day due to COVID-19
The daily operational hours for the ongoing traditional Amar Ekushey Book Fair has been changed due to the recent surge in COVID-19 infection rate across the country and the capital.
The new schedule says that the fair will remain open to the book-lovers from 3 pm to 6:30 pm, three and a half hours a day.
Also read: Bangladesh reports record number of 5,358 new daily Covid cases; 52 deaths
Bangla Academy, organiser of the month-long traditional fiesta, announced this on Wednesday.
The notice was announced via a press release signed by Aparesh Kumar Banerjee, director of the public relations department of Bangla Academy, saying, “In consideration to the recent spike in the Coronavirus infection rate, the schedule of Amar Ekushey Book Fair has been changed from 31 March, 2021. The fair will start at 3pm every day and close by 6.30pm, effective from Wednesday.”
Also read: Book fair gradually gains momentum
Originally, the traditional Amar Ekushey Book Fair followed the time schedule of 3 pm to 9 pm in the month of February, and 11am to 9 am on holiday and weekends.