Delta variant
Lockdown or no lockdown, life is the same in Dhaka
Amid growing calls for stronger measures to stop the spread of Delta variant, the government has imposed a nationwide lockdown and extended it several times. But the question is whether there is any lockdown in capital Dhaka as everything looks normal?
“This lockdown seems to be pointless when people are allowed to move as they wish. What we really need are clear rules about the lockdown and its genuine enforcement,” said a retired engineer wishing anonymity.
Read:Lockdown breaches: 342 arrested in Dhaka on day 16
The movement of people and vehicles increased significantly on the 15th day of lockdown on Sunday as many people are coming out of their houses for various reasons.
Some people are going outside for vaccination as mass vaccination programme began in the country on Saturday while many more for other reasons as export-oriented factories were opened on August 1.
It is only the shopping malls and eateries that remained closed and public transport stayed off roads as per lockdown rules.
During visits to different areas of the city, the UNB correspondent saw roads were filled with private vehicles and rickshaws as usual.
In some cases, traffic police were seen handling the pressure of vehicles on roads. Besides, the pressure of vehicles was largely seen in Mohakhali, Tejgaon, Satrasta, Uttara, New Market, Mirpur, Asad Gate, Banani, Gabtoli and Technical points. The searching and checking of people and vehicles at different points of the capital also continued, though loosely.
Read:Bustling Dhaka finally feels ‘lockdown silence’
Traffic Inspector Asaduzzaman (Mohakhali), said, “The number of vehicles is higher than the previous days and we’re handling traffic manually at Mohakhali and Amtola point.”
Shots give COVID-19 survivors big immune boost, studies show
Even people who have recovered from COVID-19 are urged to get vaccinated, especially as the extra-contagious delta variant surges — and a new study shows survivors who ignored that advice were more than twice as likely to get reinfected.
Friday’s report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention adds to growing laboratory evidence that people who had one bout of COVID-19 get a dramatic boost in virus-fighting immune cells — and a bonus of broader protection against new mutants — when they’re vaccinated.
“If you have had COVID-19 before, please still get vaccinated,” said CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky. “Getting the vaccine is the best way to protect yourself and others around you, especially as the more contagious delta variant spreads around the country.”
According to a new Gallup survey, one of the main reasons Americans cite for not planning to get vaccinated is the belief that they’re protected since they already had COVID-19. From the beginning health authorities have urged survivors to get the broader protection vaccination promises. While the shots aren’t perfect, they are providing strong protection against hospitalization and death even from the delta mutant.
Also read: China to continue providing vaccine aid to Bangladesh: Wang Yi
Scientists say infection does generally leave survivors protected against a serious reinfection at least with a similar version of the virus, but blood tests have signaled that protection drops against worrisome variants.
The CDC study offers some real-world evidence.
Researchers studied Kentucky residents with a lab-confirmed coronavirus infection in 2020, the vast majority of them between October and December. They compared 246 people who got reinfected in May or June of this year with 492 similar survivors who stayed healthy. The survivors who never got vaccinated had a significantly higher risk of reinfection than those who were fully vaccinated, even though most had their first bout of COVID-19 just six to nine months ago.
A different variant of the coronavirus caused most illnesses in 2020, while the newer alpha version was predominant in Kentucky in May and June, said study lead author Alyson Cavanaugh, a CDC disease detective working with that state’s health department.
Also read: Bangladesh going to receive large Covid vaccine shipment from China soon
That suggests natural immunity from earlier infection isn’t as strong as the boost those people can get from vaccination while the virus evolves, she said.
There’s little information yet on reinfections with the newer delta variant. But U.S. health officials point to early data from Britain that the reinfection risk appears greater with delta than with the once-common alpha variant, once people are six months past their prior infection.
“There’s no doubt” that vaccinating a COVID-19 survivor enhances both the amount and breadth of immunity “so that you cover not only the original (virus) but the variants,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, the U.S. government’s top infectious disease expert, said at a recent White House briefing.
The CDC recommends full vaccination, meaning both doses of two-dose vaccines, for everyone.
But in a separate study published Friday in JAMA Network Open, Rush University researchers reported just one vaccine dose gives the previously infected a dramatic boost in virus-fighting immune cells, more than people who have never been infected get from two shots.
Other recent studies published in Science and Nature show the combination of a prior infection and vaccination also broadens the strength of people’s immunity against a changing virus. It’s what virologist Shane Crotty of California’s La Jolla Institute for Immunology calls “hybrid immunity.”
Read: Head of UN health agency seeks vaccine booster moratorium
Vaccinated survivors “can make antibodies that can recognize all kinds of variants even if you were never exposed to the variant,” Crotty said. “It’s pretty sweet.”
One warning for anyone thinking of skipping vaccination if they had a prior infection: The amount of natural immunity can vary from person to person, possibly depending on how sick they were to begin with. The Rush University study found four of 29 previously infected people had no detectable antibodies before they were vaccinated — and the vaccines worked for them just like they work for people who never had COVID-19.
Why do many of the previously infected have such a robust response to vaccination? It has to do with how the immune system develops multiple layers of protection.
After either vaccination or infection, the body develops antibodies that can fend off the coronavirus the next time it tries to invade. Those naturally wane over time. If an infection sneaks past them, T cells help prevent serious illness by killing virus-infected cells -- and memory B cells jump into action to make lots of new antibodies.
Those memory B cells don’t just make copies of the original antibodies. In immune system boot camps called germinal centers, they also mutate antibody-producing genes to test out a range of those virus fighters, explained University of Pennsylvania immunologist John Wherry.
The result is essentially a library of antibody recipes that the body can choose from after future exposures — and that process is stronger when vaccination triggers the immune system’s original memory of fighting the actual virus.
With the delta variant’s super infectiousness, getting vaccinated despite a prior infection “is more important now than it was before to be sure,” Crotty said. “The breadth of your antibodies and potency against variants is going to be far better than what you have right now.”
15 more die of Covid at Rajshahi hospital
Fifteen more people have died of Covid-19 at Rajshahi Medical College and Hospital (RMCH) in the past 24 hours, health officials said on Friday morning.
Five of them died of Covid-19, while eight died with symptoms of the virus and the remaining three due to post-corona complications, said hospital director Brigadier General Shamim Yazdani.
Read: Rajshahi sees 17 more Covid deaths in 24 hrs
Of the deceased, eight were from Rajshahi district, two each from Natore and Pabna, and one each from Chapainawabganj, Naogaon and Kushtia districts.
Besides, 47 people have been admitted to the corona unit of the hospital in the past 24 hours. On the other hand, some 34 people were discharged from the hospital after recovery during the period.
Read:21 more die of Covid at Rajshahi hospital
Currently, 403 patients are undergoing treatment at the hospital which has 513 beds. Of them, 19 are being treated in the ICU, said the hospital director.
Of the admitted patients, 182 have tested positive for Covid-19, while 142 are with symptoms and 79 have post-Covid health complications.
No alternative to building field hospitals to save lives: GM Quader
As Covid cases continue to surge in Bangladesh, Jatiya Party Chairman GM Quader on Friday said there is no alternative to setting up field hospitals to save the lives of the virus-infected people.
In a statement, he said it has become urgent to construct field hospitals for Covid treatment in the areas where the virus transmission is very high. “Since the outbreak of corona is not waning, there’s no alternative to building the field hospitals at this moment to save the lives of the country’s people.”
Read: Govt losing trust with ministers’ ‘funny’ remarks: GM Quader
If necessary, the Jatiya Party chief said, members of Bangladesh Army can be given the responsibility to build field hospitals.
He said the Delta variant has spread to remote areas. “Gradually, the entire country has become a hotspot for corona. Already, about 90 percent of beds in Covid dedicated hospitals are now packed and ICU beds are occupied in most hospitals.”
Referring to Health Minister Zahid Maleque’s comment that the government is thinking of renting hotels for providing treatment to Covid patients with mild complications, GM Quader said setting up field hospitals is relatively more convenient and less risky for the treatment of the highly contagious coronavirus.
Read: Mass vaccination only solution to Covid crisis: GM Quader
“China, Thailand and Indonesia have already had successes in corona treatment by building field hospitals to deal with corona,” he observed.
The Jatiya Party chairman said the members of Bangladesh Army’s engineering corps build field hospitals hurriedly during various military exercises every year. “They’ve a great experience in building field hospitals. The country will benefit only if the Bangladesh Army is given the responsibility to build field hospitals.”
Read:GM Quader demands probe into vaccine, Covid test costs
For the past few weeks, Bangladesh has been experiencing the worst coronavirus wave spurred by the highly transmittable Delta variant which was first identified in India.
According to a survey by Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU), 98 percent of the Covid patients recently detected in Bangladesh are of the highly contagious Delta variant.
Delta variant Covid patients account for 98% in Bangladesh: BSMMU
Ninety-eight percent of the Covid patients recently detected in Bangladesh are of the highly contagious Delta variant while just one percent are of South African Beta variant ones, says a BSMMU survey.
Vice-Chancellor of the BSMMU (Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University) Prof M Sharfuddin Ahmed, also the supervisor of Genome sequencing research project, revealed the survey report on Thursday after scrutinizing 300 samples collected from June 29 to July 30.
Read: Why might COVID-19 vaccine boosters be necessary?
The aim of the research is to unveil the character of genome, type of mutation and discover the inter-relations of with global Covid-19 genome as well as preparing a database of Bangladesh Covid-19 genome.
This is the result of the first month of the BSMMU research and its updated result will be revealed in the months to follow.
The genome sequencing was conducted through next generation sequencing after collecting the nasopharyngeal swab samples of Covid-19 positive patients.
Covid claims 34 more lives in Khulna division
Khulna division has logged 34 new Covid-related deaths in 24 hours till Thursday morning, as the Delta variant of the deadly coronavirus continues to wreak havoc across the country.
According to the health director's office, nine people died in Kushtia, six in Jashore, four each in Khulna and Meherpur, three each in Magura and Jhenaidah, two each in Bagerhat and Narail, and one in Chuadanga district.
Read: Covid: Khulna aims to inoculate over 1.16 lakh residents
The total death toll in the division has now reached 2,554, officials said.
Besides, some 817 new Covid infections have been detected in 10 districts of the division in the past 24 hours, pushing up the total cases to 97,693.
Earlier, 35 people died of Covid-19 in the division on Wednesday, while 745 people were found infected with the virus.
Read:Khulna div registers another 40 Covid deaths, 880 cases
In Khulna division, the first case of Covid-19 was detected in Chuadanga on March 19, 2020.
So far, 75,320 people have been recovered from Covid in the division.
Global Covid cases top 200 million
The global Covid-19 caseload has now surged past the grim milestone of 200 million, as the highly contagious Delta variant continues to devastate several countries even with mass inoculations underway.
The total caseload and fatalities from the virus stand at 200,136,419 and 4,254,976, respectively, as of Thursday morning, according to Johns Hopkins University (JHU).
So far, 4,265,470,393 Covid vaccine doses have been administered across the globe, as per the university data.
Read: US plans to require COVID-19 shots for foreign travelers
The US has logged 35,331,683 cases and 614,797 deaths to date, according to the university data. The death toll in the United States is the highest in the world.
India recorded the world's second largest caseload of 31,769,132, followed by Brazil with 20,026,533 cases as well as the world's second largest death toll of 559,607. Besides, India’s death toll reached 425,757 on Thursday morning.
Countries with more than four million cases include Russia, France, Britain, Turkey, Argentina, Colombia, Spain, Italy and Iran, while those with over 100,000 deaths include India, Mexico, Peru, Russia, Britain, Italy, Colombia and France.
The global caseload reached the grim milestone of 100 million on January 26, and doubled in more than half a year.
Situation in Bangladesh
As the Covid infection rate continues to swell in Bangladesh, the country recorded 241 more deaths in 24 hours till Wednesday morning.
Read: 241 more die in Bangladesh as Covid refuses to slow down
According to a handout issued by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), 13,817 more people came out positive with the virus during the period after the test of 49,514 samples.
The fresh numbers have pushed the country’s death tally to 21,638, with the caseload mounting to 1,309,910.
Meanwhile, the daily test positivity rate fell slightly to 27.91 % from Tuesday’s 28.58%, while the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends a 5% or below rate.
The recovery rate, however, rose to 87.12%, and the case fatality remained static at 1.65% compared to the same period, said the DGHS.
Read:Covid: Khulna aims to inoculate over 1.16 lakh residents
With the vaccination drive slowly gaining momentum, 216,534 people got their first Sinopharm jab during the period.
Besides, 11,898, 10,931 and 1,026 people received their second dose of Astrazeneca, Sinopharm and Moderna vaccines, respectively, during this period.
Bangladesh is planning to vaccinate one crore people during a special drive from August 7 to 12.
Analysis: Delta variant upends politicians’ COVID calculus
President Joe Biden’s administration drew up a strategy to contain one coronavirus strain, then another showed up that’s much more contagious.
This week — a month late — Biden met his goal of 70% of U.S. adults having received at least one COVID-19 shot. Originally conceived as an affirmation of American resiliency to coincide with Independence Day, the belated milestone offered little to celebrate. Driven by the delta variant, new cases are averaging more than 70,000 a day, above the peak last summer when no vaccines were available. And the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is drawing criticism from experts in the medical and scientific community for its off-and-on masking recommendations.
But the delta variant makes no distinctions when it comes to politics. If Biden’s pandemic response is found wanting, Republican governors opposed to pandemic mandates also face an accounting. They, too, were counting on a backdrop of declining cases. Instead unvaccinated patients are crowding their hospitals.
The Biden administration’s process-driven approach succeeded in delivering more than enough vaccine to protect the country, sufficient to ship 110 million doses overseas. When the president first set his 70% vaccination target on May 4, the U.S. was dispensing around 965,000 first doses per day, a rate more than twice as fast as needed to reach the July 4 goal.
Read: Biden to launch vaccine push for millions of federal workers
Then things started to happen.
While the White House was aware of public surveys showing swaths of the population unwilling or unmotivated to get a shot, officials didn’t anticipate that nearly 90 million Americans would continue to spurn lifesaving vaccines that offer a pathway back to normalcy. The spread of misinformation about the vaccines enabled a festering fog of doubt that has clung close to the ground in many communities, particularly in Republican-led states.
Yet on May 13, when the CDC largely lifted its mask-wearing guidance for fully vaccinated adults indoors, topline indicators were still flashing green. The agency said unvaccinated people should keep wearing masks — and get their shots soon. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris celebrated by doffing their masks and strolling in the Rose Garden of the White House. Around the country, an everyday celebration spread to coffee shops, supermarkets, beer gardens and restaurants. People planned weddings and music festivals.
Drowned out in the applause were expert warnings that there was no way to tell who was and who wasn’t vaccinated, and a country restless for an end to the pandemic was essentially being placed on the honor system.
“The single biggest mistake of the Biden presidency when it comes to COVID 19 was the CDC’s precipitous and chaotic change in masking guidance back in May,” said Dr. Leana Wen, a former Baltimore health commissioner and commentator. “It had the direct result of giving people the impression the pandemic was over. It allowed unvaccinated people to have free rein and behave as if they were vaccinated, and therefore we have the surge of the delta variant.”
“I think they were naive,” Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, said of the CDC. “They saw it as a carrot, as a gift.”
Meanwhile, the delta variant had arrived, and in a matter of weeks would become the dominant strain in circulation.
Read: Biden woos working class with new ‘buy American’ efforts
CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky recently confirmed just how much more contagious delta is. “If you get sick with the alpha variant, you could infect about two other unvaccinated people,” she said. “If you get sick with the delta variant, we estimate that you could infect about five other unvaccinated people — more than twice as many as the original strain.”
Last week, the CDC reversed course on masks, recommending that even vaccinated people again mask up indoors in areas where the virus is on the march, now most of the country.
The immediate reason was a report by disease detectives of a recent outbreak in Provincetown, Massachusetts. The delta variant was to blame and a majority of those infected had been vaccinated. Although very few vaccinated people got sick enough to be hospitalized, the initial findings showed vaccinated people with breakthrough infections were carrying about as much virus as unvaccinated people.
The report fed vaccine doubts in some quarters. Wen, the former health commissioner, said the CDC should have put the Provincetown report in a fuller context that showed vaccines do keep protecting. CDC did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Back on July 4 Biden proclaimed that the nation was declaring its independence from the virus. In recent weeks, he seemed to have moved on from the pandemic. The president was focused on securing a bipartisan deal on infrastructure and on selling the separate Democrats-only legislation to carry out his ambitious domestic agenda. The number of White House COVID-19 briefings dwindled.
“We celebrated prematurely,” said Ali Mokdad, an infectious disease expert with the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington in Seattle. Biden’s 70% goal was a solid step, said Mokdad, but about half the population is not yet fully vaccinated.
Read: Biden says getting vaccinated ‘gigantically important’
Now vaccinations are again edging upward, but the data don’t show a dramatic increase.
Meanwhile, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, Republicans dismissive of mask requirements, are staring at surges in their states. Together, Florida and Texas accounted for about one-third of new cases nationally in the past week. DeSantis doubled down on defiance Tuesday, blaming “media hysteria” and people spending more time indoors in the sweltering summer.
“Even among a lot of positive tests, you are seeing much less mortality that you did year-over-year,” he said at a Miami-area news conference. “Would I rather have 5,000 cases among 20-year-olds or 500 cases among seniors? I would rather have the younger.”
Offit, the Philadelphia vaccines expert, says “it’s hard to watch” DeSantis say he won’t abide mask mandates. “Why not?” asked Offit. “That is why his state leads the league in cases.”
Global Covid cases top 199 million
The overall number of global Covid cases has now surpassed the 199-million mark as the world continues to grapple against the devastating second wave of the pandemic.
According to the US-based Johns Hopkins University (JHU), the total case count reached 199,499,792 while the death toll from the virus stood at 4,245,542 on Wednesday morning.
So far, 4,142,591,204 vaccine doses have been administered across the world.
Read: More than 110M COVID vaccines sent to 60 countries, US says
The US, which is the world's worst-hit country in terms of both cases and deaths, has so far logged 35,231,310 cases. Besides, 614,263 people have lost their lives in the US to date, as per the JHU data.
Brazil has registered 1,209 more Covid-19 deaths in the past 24 hours, raising its national death toll to 558,432, the health ministry said on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the total caseload rose to 19,985,817 after 32,316 new cases were detected.
Brazil currently has the world's second-highest pandemic death toll after the United States and the third-largest caseload after the United States and India.
The South American country is experiencing a new wave of infections, which has overwhelmed hospitals, said the ministry.
India's Covid-19 tally rose to 31,726,507 on Tuesday as 30,549 new cases were registered during the past 24 hours across the country, according to the federal health ministry.
As many as 422 deaths were recorded since Monday morning, taking the death toll to 425,195.
Although the situation in Europe is improving, globally it is worsening as the Delta variant of Covid-19 has now been detected in 124 territories worldwide, says the World Health Organization (WHO).
Read:Looking for hotels for Covid patients as hospitals struggle: Minister
Situation in Bangladesh
Amid the merciless onslaught of Covid-19 in Bangladesh, the country recorded 236 more deaths linked to the virus in 24 hours till Tuesday morning.
According to a handout issued by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), 15,776 more people came out positive with the virus during the period after the test of 55,284 samples.
The fresh numbers pushed the country’s death tally to 21,397 on Tuesday, with the caseload mounting to 1,296,093.
Meanwhile, the daily test positivity rate fell to 28.58 % from Monday's 29.91%, while the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends a 5% or below rate.
The country has been seeing over 14,300 cases and 230 deaths every day on an average for the last seven days.
The recovery rate, however, rose to 86.80%, and the case fatality remained unchanged at 1.65% compared to the same period, said the DGHS.
Amid the growing concerns about the highly infectious Delta variant, Dhaka division reported the highest 73 deaths, Chattogram 65, Khulna 32, Rajshahi 21, Sylhet, Rangpur and Mymensingh each 12, and Barishal eight deaths.
Lockdown extended
The government has extended the current lockdown till August 10 amid a surge in the Delta variant of Covid-19 across the country.
Read: Bangladesh’s Covid nightmare: 235 more die, 15,776 infected
Liberation War Affairs Minister AKM Mozammel Haque announced the decision of the government while talking to reporters after an inter-ministerial meeting on Tuesday.
The government has made vaccination mandatory for people’s movement from August 11 and a decision has been taken to provide punitive action against those who will fail to get Covid shots in time.
The government is set to launch a mass vaccination drive at the village level from 14,000 vaccine centres from August 7, as one crore people will be inoculated in the next one week.
Bangladesh extends lockdown again as Delta variant plays havoc
The government has extended the current lockdown till August 10 amid a surge in the Delta variant of Covid-19 across the country.
Liberation War Affairs Minister AKM Mozammel Haque disclosed the decision of the government while talking to reporters after an inter-ministerial meeting on Tuesday.
Read: Lockdown in Dhaka: Surging infections, soaring chaos
He said shops, factories and offices will be reopened from August 11 while public transport will be allowed to ply roads by rotation on a limited scale once the lockdown is over.
Health Minister Zahid Maleque, Cabinet Secretary Khandker Anwarul Islam were present at the virtual meeting along with other ministers and state ministers.
Liberation War Affairs Minister AKM Mozammel Haque said: “Today’s decision is a provisional one as we’ll take another decision considering the situation.”
The government is set to launch a mass vaccination drive at the village level from 14,000 vaccine centres from August 7 as one crore people will be vaccinated in the next one week, he said.
The minister said the vaccine campaign will be launched simultaneously with a focus on senior people as they face a greater risk of fatalities.
He urged workers and helpers of bus drivers to get their Covid jabs as no one will be allowed to join work without vaccinations. “Once vaccinated, the certificates will be available on the website,” he said.
Regarding cross-checking, he said it will be possible to check whether one took the jab or not, and it can be scrutinised on 7-9 August.
Read:Lockdown: Thousands returning to Dhaka as factories going to reopen Sunday