Patients not maintaining social distancing increase risk of Covid-19 in Brahmanbaria

The number of Covid-19 patients in Brahmanbaria is increasing every day as more patients are being tested now in the district. The upazila health complexes along with the Brahmanbaria District Sadar hospital are collecting samples for testing Covid-19 infection. 

Doctors and health workers expressed concern over the fact that patients coming to hospital to give samples for the test are not maintaining social distancing, which increases the risk of a wider spread of the virus.

Most of the novel coronavirus patients in the district are from Sadar and Nabinagar upazilas. 

On condition of anonymity, some patients said many people who came for the test were found positive for the virus, although they showed no symptom. That prompted many people rush to the hospital for testing even if they had only a normal cold and fever. 

Superintendent of the Sadar Hospital Dr Shawkat Hossain said, "We are always telling people to be sensible.  We are trying to make them follow social distancing norms when they come to give samples. We also made an announcement asking people not to come to the hospital if they do not have any symptom. But still they are not becoming aware."

Initially health workers visited the suspected patients' houses to collect their samples, but that stopped recently when the hospitals in the district started collecting samples on a large scale.

The Brahmanbaria District Sadar Hospital, which started collecting samples from April 9, witnesses the biggest crowd of patients. 

From Saturday to Thursday patients' samples are collected at a booth set up at the hospital.

First, the physicians examine the patients, who then fills up a form and submit it to the hospital. Later the health workers calls them to fix a time and date for collecting their samples at the hospital. 

Mithun Karmakar, in-charge of the pathology section of the Sadar Hospital, said, "We give the patients a specific time and date to avoid a gathering in front of the booth. We continuously ask them to maintain social distancing while they come to give samples. Some patients pay us heed, some don't."

The Sadar Hospital aimed to collect 50 samples per day, but currently it is collecting more than that. Samples of 876 people were collected till June 6.

Civil Surgeon of Brahmanbaria Dr Mohammad Ekram Ullah said, "We told everyone not to panic. We also told people to follow health safety rules and social distancing norms."

"We are also raising awareness so that health workers at the sample collection booth keep themselves safe and patients maintain social distancing when they provide samples," he added.