Many Bangladesh hospitals in the districts are at full capacity as they are grappling with an increasing number of Covid 19 patients.

There is hardly any bed for new Covid patients in at least five hospitals in Satkhira, Khulna, Natore, Rajshahi and Panchagarh.

These hospitals have been turning away patients for the past few days, Daily Star reported.

Besides, the number of daily new cases has increased across the country.

The positivity rate has also gone up to 13.25.

With the new cases, the total number of active Covid-19 cases rose to around 50,000. Of them, 3,200 were being treated at hospitals, according to a press release from the DGHS.

The official death toll in the country has reached 12,989 and the death rate stood at 1.58 percent.

With no beds available, the authorities of Khulna Medical College Hospital (KMCH) stopped admitting patients in its 100-bed Covid-19 unit.

"We're at capacity. There is no empty bed and that's why we stopped taking in new patients," said Resident Medical Officer Suhash Ranjan Halder of the Covid 19 unit at KMCH.

"Doctors and nurses are always struggling to handle the rush of critical patients. If we admit any more patients, we won't be able to properly treat the critical ones," he said.

In Natore the district hospital was in a similar situation.

Besides, the hospital does not have a central oxygen supply system to provide high flow oxygen to patients, who have been gasping for oxygen.

There were 43 Covid-19 patients against 30 beds in this hospital, which was struggling with an inadequate number of physicians and technicians, said Assistant Director Paritosh Kumar.

In Chapainawabganj the 250-bed district hospital had 55 Covid patients against its capacity to treat 50.

As the number of patients was increasing, the hospital authorities were thinking about raising the bed number to 70, said Dr. Ahnaf Shahriar, focal person of the Covid 19 unit of the hospital.

In Thakurgaon, the district hospital, with a 50-bed Covid unit, cannot provide ventilator support to critical patients.

"We have a limited capacity to treat patients. So we are advising patients to follow our treatment protocols at home," Dr. Rokibul Alam, resident medical officer at the hospital, told the Daily Star.

(SAM)