Moudud Ahmmed Sujan

On Thursday, the authorities of Chapainawabganj Sadar Hospital increased the number of beds for Covid-19 patients to 30 from 20 to tackle the rush of patients.

As it was not enough, the number of beds had to be raised to 50 yesterday. All the beds, however, were occupied by evening, said Ahnaf Shahriar, a physician at the hospital’s coronavirus unit.

“We’ve more patients coming,” he told The Daily Star last night.

Hospitals in five other districts -- Satkhira, Chuadanga, Rajshahi, Noakhali, and Bagerhat -- were also struggling to accommodate an increasing number of coronavirus patients, said sources at the hospitals.

Except Bagerhat and Noakhali, the four other districts have borders with India.

Health experts and officials believe the situation arose due to the community transmission of the Indian variant (Delta) of the Covid-19 and slack measures to curb the spread of the virus.

The Indian variant has been held responsible recently for the massive surge in Covid-19 cases in India.

According to the weekly analysis of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), these six districts witnessed positivity rates of 30 percent and above from last week until Thursday.

It means every 30 or above number of samples tested came positive there.

The situation in Bagerhat, Noakhali, and Chuadanga were not that serious the previous week, shows the weekly analysis.