COVID-19 services will be halted in 12 hospitals across Bangladesh due to the lack of patients, according to the Directorate General of Health Services.

The remark was made by the Directorate in a letter dated August 27 to Health Secretary Md Abdul Mannan, bdnews24 reported on Thursday.

The hospitals comprised five in Dhaka, six in Chattogram and one in Sylhet.

As many as 11,165 beds out of 14,275 in COVID-19 hospitals were without any patients on Wednesday. The rate was a little over 68 per cent by the end of June.

The government signed contracts with different hospitals for the treatment of COVID-19 patients after the outbreak began in Bangladesh in March.

Though the government is paying the cost of treatment in these facilities, the number of patients has been very low.

"The equipment and staffing in these hospitals have remained unused," bdnews24 quoted Professor ABM Khurshid Alam, the Director General of Health Services, as saying on Thursday.

"We will redistribute the manpower and equipment of these hospitals. But we will need to keep some hospitals ready because we don't know what might happen in future.

"The government hospitals will continue the services," he added.

Meanwhile, Health Minister Zahid Maleque said he was working on the issue, but it would take some time to halt services in all the 12 hospitals because they still had some patients.

The Ministry has instructed the government hospitals dedicated for coronavirus patients to gradually resume services for non-COVID-19 patients, Maleque added.

As of Friday, Bangladesh has reported a total of 344,264 coroavirus cases with 4,859 deaths.

(IANS)