Covid-19 update
Vaccines start arriving in fulfilment of prime minister’s commitment, says Quader
Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader on Saturday said that corona vaccines have started arriving in the country as promised by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
"Already 2.5 million doses of vaccine have reached the country, more vaccines will come in a few days," he said during his regular briefing from his official residence.
Read: Obaidul Quader pleased by 'development-friendly' budget
Quader, also road transport and bridges minister, urged the people to adhere to corona health rules and stay home to prevent high rates of infection during the ongoing lockdown.
Turning to BNP, the AL leader said that the opposition party’s only job is to dispute the government’s achievements. This has become their ploy to divert people’s attention from their failures, he said.
He alleged that BNP has continued to spread lies to confuse people about corona pandemic and government’s sincere efforts to handle the situation.
Read: Obaidul Quader: Covid vaccines to be collected, no matter what
Meanwile, Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen on Friday night received the first consignment of 2.5 million doses of Moderna vaccine under the COVAX framework.
This consignment is part of the US government's recent allocation of 25 million vaccine doses for countries in Asia through COVAX.
Bangladesh receives 1st consignment of 2mn doses of Sinopharm vaccine
Bangladesh has received its first consignment of two million doses of Sinopharm vaccine.
A special flight of Biman Bangladesh Airlines landed at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport with the vaccines from China at around 12:40am Saturday.
Read: 'It's just the beginning': US ambassador on Moderna shipment's arrival
Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen and Health Minister Zahid Maleque received the vaccine doses on behalf of the government.
Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen and other high officials of the government were also there to receive the Sinopharm vaccine doses purchased from China.
Read: Bangladesh receives 1st consignment of 2.5 million Moderna vaccine doses
The government has so far approved the emergency use of Oxford-AstraZeneca, Sinopharm (China), Sputnik-V (Russia), Pfizer-BioNTech (USA/Germany) and Crona Vac (China) vaccines.
Bangladesh unlikely to reach Covid herd immunity anytime soon: Expert
Although its study suggests around 71 percent of Dhaka city dwellers have already gained antibodies for coronavirus, an icddr,b scientist says herd immunity threshold is still out of reach in Bangladesh’s capital, let alone the whole country to reach it.
Dr Rubhana Raqib, a senior scientist at the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b), also says it may not be possible to attain the long-term herd immunity for Covid-19 as long as the virus continues to mutate as she thinks highly contagious new variants can break people’s immune protection gained either from the previous infections or vaccination.
Read: Bangladesh far away from herd immunity
In an interview with UNB, she also said it is generally assumed that Covid-19 may remain active like influenza and other flues for a long time and it is quite possible that people will need to receive the vaccine at a regular interval until the virus loses its mutation or virulence capability.
icddr,b conducted a study titled “Driving Factors of Covid-19 in Slums and Non-Slum Areas of Dhaka and Chittagong,” between October 2020 and February 2021 to evaluate the extent of the spread of the virus in the slum and non-slum communities of the two cities.
As per the findings of the study unveiled on June 22, Covid-19 antibody developed in 71 per cent people in Dhaka and 55 per in Chattogram while the overall 68 per cent of people studied had the coronavirus antibody developed in their blood. Dr Rubhana Raqib was the principal investigator of the study.
Read: Covid-19 burials: Quantum volunteers working through this lockdown too
Herd immunity is a concept based on the body's immune resistance to the spread of a deadly disease (bacterial or viral infection) and it can be obtained in two ways -- naturally through infections of the majority of the population and artificially through vaccinating around 80-90 percent of the population of a country.
Uncertainty over Covid herd immunity
“No one, including the WHO, still can surely say whether herd immunity for the Covid-19 is possible. We know herd immunity for Measles, Polio, cholera and other diseases, but no one knows about it regarding the Covid,” said Dr Rubhana.
She said it was a primary assumption that if around 80 percent of the population gains antibodies, then the herd immunity for Covid can be attained. “But new variants of Covid-19 virus are emerging with many mutations. So, it’s still difficult to say how the antibodies will respond to the new variants.”
Read: 2 million doses of Sinopharm vaccine to reach Dhaka soon
“For example, Israel has vaccinated almost 95 percent of its population with the Pfizer vaccine. But people in that country are now being infected with the Delta variant. That means achieving herd immunity regarding Covid is uncertain and difficult. So, we can’t say the population in Dhaka is going to attain herd immunity,” the scientist observed.
Covid vaccine may require every year
Rubhana said it may not be possible now to get herd immunity against Covid-19. “But it can be possible to protect people by boosting their immunity through administering vaccines from time to time as well as through upgrading the vaccines in line with emerging variants.
Like influenza and other flu vaccines, the scientist said it may require yearly vaccination for Covid. “The developed countries, including the USA, switch the flu vaccine strains every year evaluating the change in characteristics of those viruses. Most international scientists and WHO are also saying that it may require receiving Covid vaccines every year.”
Read: Free Covid-19 testing for low-income people during July
She said immunity from vaccines will give some protection against the new variants. “Virus has many antigens, but the vaccines are developed targeting some specific antigens for creating antibodies against those. When the virus changes its character, the antibody can’t identify and fight the new antigens, but it can neutralise the old antigens and thus the antibody can reduce the severity of the disease.”
Immunity can wear off
Rubhana said the antibody developed through Covid infection may not last long. “Research has shown that the antibody lasts for 3-4 months in some people while it lasts around 9-10 months in others. As the antibody is reduced after a few months, it can be boosted again with vaccination.”
She said the human body contains B cells and T cells to protect the body from foreign invasion by viruses or bacteria. “These are the major cellular components of the specific immune response.”
The scientist said when people get infections or are vaccinated, B cells in their body produce antibodies against the virus. “Once the infections subside, the B cells carrying the “memory” hide in the bone marrow. When these people encounter the virus again in the future, the B cells come out of their hiding place, multiply into thousands and millions of cells and produce huge antibodies to neutralise the virus.”
Read: Covid-19: Switzerland provides additional Tk 90 crore to support Bangladesh
Similarly, she said, “memory T cells” also remain hidden and when the virus attacks next time, they get stimulated with the exposure of the virus and kill the infected cells and the virus. “But it’s still being investigated whether the B cells and T cells can properly work in neutralising or killing the coronavirus when it changes its characters through mutations,” she observed.
No alternative to vaccine
Asked which antibody, natural one or vaccine-generated one, is stronger, Rubhana said, “Vaccines train our immune system to fight against future infections with the new coronavirus. But there’s an interesting thing regarding the Covid that if any person having natural antibodies from a Covid infection receives a vaccine, it significantly boosts his/her immunity. Research has shown that the response of antibodies from vaccines is higher than the antibody from infections.”
She said some vaccines, such as Pfizer and Moderna, have been developed considering some components of the virus while Sinopharm developed it considering the whole inactivated virus. “So, these two types of vaccines may give different levels of protection.”
Read: COVID-19: Vaccines slowing growth in global caseload, as deaths near 4 million
She also said those who receive vaccines may not suffer from severe infection if they get infected with the virus afterwards. “So, there’s no alternative to vaccination to get back to normalcy.”
Rubhana said serosurveillance study should be conducted across the country to know the extent of the spread of the disease and the level of antibodies among the vast population.
“It’s also necessary to know how long the antibodies persist among the different age groups of people and how the antibodies work against the new variants like Delta one,” she added.
10 more Covid patients die in Khulna
Ten more people have died of Covid-19 at three different hospitals in Khulna in the past 24 hours, health officials said on Thursday.
While eight persons died at the dedicated Covid facility of Khulna Medical College, one each succumbed to Covid at the corona unit of Khulna General Hospital and the private Gazi Medical College Hospital.
Read: 13 more die of Covid in Khulna - Dhaka
Khulna Corona Dedicated Hospital's nodal person Dr Suhas Ranjan Haldar said a total of 198 people are currently undergoing treatment at the hospital. Of them, 105 people are getting treatment in the red zone of the hospital, 45 in the yellow zone, 20 in ICU (intensive care unit), and 20 in HDU (high deficiency unit),
On the other hand, as many as 33 new patients have been admitted to the hospital and 34 discharged after recovery since Tuesday morning.
Read: Alarming Covid surge in Khulna division; death toll crosses 1,000
Kazi Abu Rashed, spokesman for the corona unit of Khulna General Hospital, said that some 12 people have been admitted to the hospital and six discharged after recovery till Thursday morning.
Gazi Mizanur Rahman, owner of Gazi Medical College Hospital, said that one died of Covid-19 in the past 24 hours. Besides, 95 people are currently undergoing treatment at the hospital. Of them, nine are getting treatment in ICU and ten in HDU.
10 Covid deaths reported in Chattogram in a day
Authorities have recorded 10 more Covid-19-related deaths in the past 24 hours on Wednesday, taking the total death toll to 701 in Chattogram district.
Besides, 399 people tested positive for the virus after in1,364 samples test in nine laboratories during this period, said Chattogram Civil Surgeon Dr. Sheikh Fazle Rabbi.
Read: Coronavirus claims eight more lives in Chattogram
Of the total infected people, 284 were from Chattogram city and the rest 115 from different upazilas of the district. The infection rate is high in Fatikchchari upazila.
So far, 58,724 people have been infected in the district.
Read: CMCH doctor among 3 died from COVID-19 in Chattogram
Earlier, authorities have put Fatikchchari upazila under eight –day lockdown from June 23 due to worsening situation of Covid-19.
As variant rises, vaccine plan targets ‘movable middle’
Thrown off-stride to reach its COVID-19 vaccination goal, the Biden administration is sending A-list officials across the country, devising ads for niche markets and enlisting community organizers to persuade unvaccinated people to get a shot.
The strategy has the trappings of a political campaign, complete with data crunching to identify groups that can be won over.
Read: Asia welcomes US vaccine donations amid cold storage worries
But the message is about public health, not ideology. The focus is a group health officials term the “movable middle” — some 55 million unvaccinated adults seen as persuadable, many of them under 30.
“We’re not just going to do the mass vaccination sites,” said Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra. “It’s door to door. It’s mobile clinics. We’re doing vaccinations at church, the PTA meeting, the barber shop, the grocery store.”
Officials have seized on a compelling new talking point, courtesy of the coronavirus. The potent delta variant that has ravaged India is spreading here. Now accounting for about 1 in 5 virus samples genetically decoded in the U.S., the more transmissible mutation has gained a foothold in Mountain West and heartland states. Many of those infected are young and unvaccinated.
The White House has lent its top names to the vaccine push.
Read: Who benefits? US debates fairest way to share spare vaccine
President Joe Biden visited a mobile vaccination site in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Thursday. Earlier in the day, first lady Jill Biden held the hand of a woman at a drive-thru vaccination site in Kissimmee, Florida.
Doug Emhoff, the husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, has racked up thousands of frequent flyer miles, visiting at least 18 or 19 states by his count.
The administration also has recruited celebrities and athletes, including country music star Brad Paisley and the Tampa Bay Lightning hockey team. It has teamed up with Twitch and Riot Games to reach online gamers and with Panera and Chipotle to offer free food to those getting a shot.
The message, as Surgeon General Vivek Murthy put it: “If you are vaccinated, you are protected. If you are not, the threat of variants is real and growing.”
It’s unclear how well the levers of persuasion are functioning. Vaccination rates have dropped below 1 million a day, and there’s no sign yet of a turnaround. The administration has acknowledged that it will fall short of its goal of having 70% of adults vaccinated by July Fourth.
At this point, about 170 million American adults have received at least one vaccine dose, representing roughly two-thirds of those 18 and older. An Associated Press analysis suggests that Biden’s self-imposed goal may not be reached until late July at current rates of vaccination.
Analysts at HHS have developed a rough sketch of those in the movable middle. They tend to be younger, mainly 18-29. Most are not college educated, and political independents predominate. Black and Latino adults are more likely to fall in this category than people of other backgrounds.
It can be a hard sell. After Jill Biden’s visit to Mississippi earlier in the week, Gulf Coast resident Sherie Bardwell was unimpressed. She said Biden’s comment that “vaccines might feel like a miracle, but there’s no faith required,” sounded to her like a dig at people with Christian beliefs.
“She said shots are miracles that don’t require faith. The Bible says just live by faith,” said Bardwell, who followed news about the first lady’s visit. Bardwell said both she and her husband had COVID-19 and she was hospitalized.
“My thoughts are, if you’ve already had the coronavirus, why do you need the vaccine?” asked Bardwell. “If the vaccine was the ‘miracle,’ then why are you still at risk of contracting the virus after receiving the shot? It just doesn’t make sense to me.” Doctors advise recovered patients to get vaccinated so as to maintain protection.
Privately, some White House officials fret that the persuadable universe may be shrinking.
Early success with vaccination has paradoxically made things more difficult. Now that cases and deaths have dropped to levels not seen since the onset of the pandemic, officials say it’s become harder to convince Americans of the urgency of getting a shot — particularly younger people who already knew they were at low risk of serious complications.
Biden officials say they recognize that it’s going to take more than celebrity pitches to close the deal. In Knoxville, Tennessee, a retired hospice and home care administrator has become a volunteer COVID-19 response organizer in the Black community. Cynthia Finch is one of many around the country to whom federal health officials have turned as “trusted messengers.”
Finch dubbed her local vaccine strategy the “3 V’s.” She started with what she calls “vaccine partners,” such as local hospitals and universities, to create a framework. Then she organized volunteers to give shots by working with professional groups including a Black nursing sorority. Finally, she reached out to pastors and community organizations to provide venues where people could come to get their vaccines. Finch estimates those efforts have led to thousands of people getting fully vaccinated.
She said she is used to dealing with skepticism, particularly given the history of substandard care in minority communities and the use of Black patients in medical experiments without their consent. She tries to listen carefully to objections and concerns, and respond with factual information that’s on point.
“When you start telling them things they can relate to, it kind of calms them down,” she said.
Her own motivation is personal. Finch said a close friend lost two brothers days apart to COVID-19, and that motivates her to keep working. “People are still dying,” she said.
While applauding the Biden administration’s efforts to get Americans vaccinated, some public health experts say there are limits to what persuasion can achieve.
The administration has ruled out vaccine passports that could become a ticket to benefits such as international travel. But Dr. Leana Wen, a former Baltimore health commissioner, said a federal verification system that people could use to prove their vaccination status could still be an incentive.
“Setting an aspirational goal of 70% was the right goal for the Biden administration, but I wish they had not been so hesitant about vaccination requirements,” she said.
“We are going to be in a position where the majority of the country is going to be vaccinated,” said Wen. “Why should they be held hostage by a minority of the population, who are potentially endangering everybody else?”
Administration officials show no signs of budging in their position. “The federal government is not planning to create a database of people who have been vaccinated,” Murthy said.
India’s covid curve could raise the world’s
As India recovers from a brutal second wave of the Covid pandemic, it faces a new challenge: Can it quickly vaccinate enough people to minimize the risk of a third?
Over the first three days of this week, India jabbed 21 million people—a significant acceleration. Stepping up vaccinations, combined with protection gained from a large number of Covid infections, could carry the country toward herd immunity by year’s end. But this week’s surge in vaccinations may not be sustainable, and the duration of protection provided by previous exposure to the virus remains uncertain.
Read: India's COVID-19 tally crosses 30 million
The high stakes for India are self-evident. Covid has battered the country’s economy, diminished its international standing, and raised serious questions about its government’s competence. Officially, about 392,000 Indians had died of Covid as of Wednesday. But many experts say that figure is a gross underestimate.
India’s battle against the disease also matters disproportionately to the global effort against Covid. The longer the virus continues to spread, the more variants can emerge, and a nation with one-sixth of the world’s population is a potentially huge incubator.
The highly contagious Delta variant sweeping the world was first detected in India. This mutation has already led to an uptick in cases in the U.K. and is set to become the dominant strain in the U.S. This week, White House chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci said the Delta variant is the “greatest threat” to eliminating Covid in America. He expects the strain to be “quite dominant” in the U.S. within several weeks to a month. The longer India’s vaccination effort takes, the higher the odds of other variants emerging there, including some that may be immune to current vaccines.
“It’s safe to say that India is the most important challenge that we know of in the world today,” says Jerome Kim, director general of the International Vaccine Institute, in a phone interview. “So far we’ve been lucky, but a vaccine-resistant mutant could undermine $18 billion worth of U.S. government investment in vaccines.”
India’s troubles have also set back vaccination efforts in other poor countries. As the world’s largest manufacturer of vaccines, India had been poised to supply the World Health Organization with hundreds of millions of doses earmarked for the developing world. But since March India has diverted vaccine supplies to its domestic market. After coming under attack for an ill-judged vaccine-diplomacy effort that critics say gave priority to global grandstanding over citizens’ health, New Delhi will be loath to resume exports until India’s own population is inoculated.
It’s easy to be skeptical about India’s prospects. The best India has done before this month was 84 million Covid vaccinations in April, on average 2.8 million shots a day. As of Wednesday, only 3.7% of India’s 1.4 billion people were fully vaccinated. About 17.5% had received one dose of vaccine.
Read: Why India is shattering global infection records
In a phone interview, Gagandeep Kang, a virologist at the Christian Medical College in Tamil Nadu, points out that historically the bulk of Indian vaccination efforts have been aimed at children or pregnant women. Reaching all adults poses a new challenge. She also worries about “huge resistance” to vaccination in rural areas rife with ill-founded rumors about the dangers the shots present. Dr. Kang estimates that India does not yet have sufficient vaccine production to consistently vaccinate even four million people a day. She doesn’t expect the country to start administering eight million to 10 million doses a day before the end of the year.
It’s unlikely that international help can cover the gap. Dr. Kim expects global supplies to remain constrained for at least the next three to six months. Should people need booster shots or fresh vaccinations for variants, global demand could reach 30 billion doses over the next two years. To put this in perspective, so far about 2.79 billion doses have been administered across the world.
Nor does New Delhi’s response to the pandemic so far inspire confidence. In an email interview, T. Jacob John, an Indian virologist, says the Indian government’s response to the pandemic has been marked by a mix of “denial, [a longing for] God’s help, wishful thinking and pseudoscience.”
Unlike better-prepared nations, India failed to order sufficient vaccines in advance or boost manufacturing capacity with grants. Its haphazard pacing seems to favor appearances over reality: India made all adults eligible for vaccines almost seven weeks before Britain, despite having vaccinated a much smaller proportion of the population. A hastily approved domestic vaccine appeared to privilege vaccine nationalism over scientific rigor.
Nonetheless, there’s reason for cautious optimism. The scale of the pandemic in India—an estimated 637 million cases, according to the Seattle-based Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation compared with the official estimate of 30 million—means that the country may already be relatively close to herd immunity.
Indian private companies have decades of experience producing vaccines. Dr. Kim believes that top Indian companies, including Pune-based Serum Institute of India and Hyderabad-based Biological E and Bharat Biotech, have the capacity to ramp up production of high-quality vaccines. A clutch of new shots will likely become available before the end of the year. The U.S. vaccine Novavax has been licensed to Serum Institute; Biological E will manufacture Johnson & Johnson’s single-shot vaccine.
There’s no question that India flubbed its management of the second wave. But with a little luck and a lot of effort, it may still dodge a repetition of this spring’s devastation.
This article was first published in WSJ
Covid-19: Bangladesh reports 85 more deaths, positivity rate crosses 20%
Health authorities logged 5,727 more new Covid-19 cases in Bangladesh with a positivity rate of 20.27% in 24 hours until Wednesday morning as the Coronavirus keeps wreaking havoc on the country in its 2nd wave.
This is the highest number of cases registered in a single day since 13 April.
The positivity rate in the country rose to 20.27% from Tuesday’s 19.36%, according to a handout of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
Besides, the deadly virus claimed the lives of 85 more people during the 24-hour period, bringing the national tally to 13,787.
This is the highest since 20 April when the country logged 88 deaths in a single day.
The fresh cases pushed up the total caseload to 8,66,877, the handout added.
However, the mortality rate remained static at 1.59%.
So far, 791,553 people have recovered from the virus infections with 3,168 new ones.
Among the recent deceased, 55 were men and 30 were women. Of them, 10 between 31-40, 11 between 41-50, 18 between 51-60 and 46 were above 60 years of old.
The highest number of 36 deaths were recorded in Khulna division followed by Dhaka and Rajshahi with 19 and 18 deaths respectively.
Also read: Nationwide lockdown not needed if transmission in Dhaka, nearby districts is controlled: DGHS
The number of deaths was 7 in Chattogram, 3 in Mymensingh and 1 each in Barishal and Rangpur.
How to avert nationwide lockdown
The countrywide lockdown will not be necessary if Covid-19 transmission can be controlled in Dhaka and its adjacent districts, says the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
DGHS spokesperson Dr Robed Amin came up with the remark at its daily virtual briefing on Covid-19 on Wednesday.
“We’re observing the infection rates both in Dhaka and the surrounding districts. If the situation worsens in the capital first, a lockdown will be imposed in Dhaka and then across the country,” he said.
Lockdown extended in Rajshahi
Lockdown was extended for another week in Rajshahi city on Wednesday in an effort to bring the worsening coronavirus situation under control.
Abdul Jalil, deputy commissioner of Rajshahi, made the announcement following a meeting at his office on Wednesday afternoon.
Now the lockdown, which started on June 11, will remain in force until June 30.
Also read: Let's see what can be done, have patience: PM about vaccine management
Rajshahi recorded 18 new Covid-related deaths in 24 hours, according to the DGHS handout.
A total of 245 people have died of Covid-19 at the corona unit of Rajshahi Medical College and Hospital in the last 23 days, according to sources.
36 deaths in Khulna!
Covid-19 continues to choke lives out of the residents of Khulna as 36 people died in the division in the last 24 hours, the highest in the country.
At Khulna General Hospital, some 156 patients are currently undergoing treatment at the corona unit.
Of them, 98 people are getting treatment in the red zone of the hospital, 22 in the yellow zone, 20 in ICU (intensive care unit), and 16 in HDU (high deficiency unit), reported our correspondent citing hospital sources.
Bangladesh loses 63 more lives to Covid; new infections 3,840
Bangladesh logged 63 more Coronavirus-related deaths in the last 24 hours until 8am on Thursday as the country is scrambling to manage the 2nd wave of the virus infection.
The new deaths pushed up the number of fatalities to 13,345.
Read: Covid-19: Bangladesh reports sharp rise in infections
The virus also infected 3,840 people during the period, raising the total caseload to 8,41,087.
The positivity rate slightly declined to 15.44 percent from Wednesday’s 16.62 percent, said a handout issued by the Directorate General of Health Services.
However, the fatality rate remained static at 1.59 % during the period.
The country last recorded 15.07 percent positivity rate on April 21.
Read: Covid positivity rate rises in Bangladesh
The fresh cases were detected after testing 24,871 samples during the period.
As 776,466 people recovered from the virus, the country's recovery rate now stands at 92.32 percent, which is on the decline for a week.
Covid-19 claims 18 more lives in Khulna division in 24 hrs
Eighteen more Covid-19 patients died in Khulna division in the last 24 hours until 8 am on Thursday, a top health official said.
Read: 9 more Covid patients die in Khulna division
Of the deceased, four are from Khulna, four from Kushtia, three from Jashore, two from Chuadanga, two from Meherpur, one each from Bagerhat, Magura, and Jhinaidah districts.
During the period, some 765 people have tested positive for Covid-19 and 281 people recovered, according to Khulna Divisional Health Office.
Read: Khulna Corona Hospital scrambles for space as Covid patients soar
In Khulna division, the first case of Covid-19 was detected in Chuadanga on March 19, 2020.
So far, 42,611 people have been infected with the virus in 10 districts of the division and the death toll has reached 767. A total of 33,827 people have recovered from the virus to date.