Coronavirus patients are no longer required to undergo second or third tests at the end of quarantine for confirmation of recovery. If their symptoms subside, the health directorate automatically counts them among improvements.

The patients who show symptoms or required medication in the last three days of their isolation period and the dead are purged from the recovery list, according to officials. That is how the recovery count is presented in the daily health bulletin.

Dr Nasima Sultana, additional director general of the directorate, said they have been providing this new 'estimate' of recovered patients since Jun 28.  Earlier, patients were tested at the end of their isolation periods and then declared healthy based on test results, she said.

The national technical advisory committee on COVID-19 still recommends conducting tests after a patient completes the quarantine period. However, the health directorate claims to be following the new protocol of the World Health Organization.

Bangladesh reported its first case of the coronavirus on Mar 8. As of Thursday, the health directorate has reported 196,323 coronavirus virus cases and 2,496 deaths. A total of 106, 963 patients have recovered, it said in the bulletin.

The recovery rate stood at 40.44 percent on Jun 28, the last day in which the recovery count was reported using the old criteria. It has since jumped to 54.48 percent under the new method of calculation.

"A person infected with COVID-19 spends 14 days or, in some cases, 21 days in isolation. If he displays no symptoms in the last three days and doesn't require medicine, then he is considered to have recovered from the virus. If the infected do not die, they are also believed to have recovered," Nasima told bdnews24.com.

Officials said they are collecting information about the recovered and dead patients in home isolation through the district civil surgeon's office.

However, the directorate did not aggregate the numbers of patients who have 'recovered' in hospitals and at home.

"It will take some time to get the numbers from all the hospitals. Hospitals have only recently started providing the numbers. It was not given in the beginning," said Nasima.

Virologist Nazrul Islam, a member of the national technical advisory committee on COVID-19, said the new method of calculating the number of recovered patients is faulty.

"Everyone among those being declared recovered may not be corona-negative. Some may not show any symptoms but may still be retaining the virus in their bodies. That is why a second test should be conducted."

https://bdnews24.com/bangladesh/2020/07/16/bangladesh-covid-19-recovery-rate-rises-in-the-absence-of-second-test