Thirteen people have died at the coronavirus unit of Rajshahi Medical College Hospital (RMCH), between 6:00 am on Saturday and 6:00 am on Sunday.
Six of the dead tested positive for coronavirus, while the rest were all showing symptoms consistent with the disease. Five of those who tested positive hailed from Chapainawabganj, while one was from Naogaon, reports bdnews24.com.
Twelve of the dead were men, while one was a woman, said RMCH Director Brigadier General Shameem Yazdani. Two of them hailed from Rajshahi, six from Chapainawabganj, three from Naogaon, and one each from Natore and Kushtia.
Six of the dead were over 60 years of age, two were between 51 and 60 years of age and the rest were between 30 and 50 years of age, according to Director Yazdani.
This raises the number of people who have died at the coronavirus unit in the past 13 days (from 6:00 am on Jun 1 to 6:00 am on Jun 13) to 125, he said. Seventy of them had tested positive for coronavirus, while the rest were displaying symptoms.
Another 42 patients were admitted to the unit in the past 24 hours, Yazdani said, while 35 recovered from the disease and were released.
This raises the number of patients receiving care at the unit to 294, well above the unit’s capacity of 271 beds, but hospital staff are trying to manage by increasing the number of beds through alternate means.
Twenty-seven of the newly admitted patients were from Rajshahi, seven were from Chapainawabganj, three from Natore, and five from Naogaon. Of the 294 patients admitted to the unit, 130 are from Rajshahi, 108 from Chapainawabganj, 14 from Natore, 28 from Naogaon, four from Pabna, and one from Kushtia.
Eighteen patients are admitted to the hospital’s ICU.
POSITIVITY RATE JUMPS 16%
After three straight days of falling positivity rates from coronavirus tests at the RMCH labs, the figure has jumped up by nearly 16 per cent.
The labs tested 341 people at the coronavirus ‘hotspot’ of Rajshahi on Saturday and 183 tests came back positive, for a positivity rate of 53.67 per cent. On Friday the rate was 37.74 per cent. It was 38.34 on Thursday and 41.84 on Friday.
A total of 683 COVID tests were conducted for people from four districts at the labs on Saturday, said Director Yazdani, 230 of which came back positive. Of the 158 tests from Chapainawabganj, 26 came back positive, 19 of 150 tests from Natore came back positive, as did two of the four tests from Natore.
LOCKDOWN CONTINUES
Rajshahi is currently in its third day of a week-long ‘strictest lockdown’.
The lockdown started late on Friday afternoon and will continue until Jun 17.
The streets were largely empty in Rajshahi city on Saturday. Stores and shops were closed. But a number of pedestrians could still be seen in the area.
Only pharmacies remain open and only emergency vehicles are allowed on the roads, said Rajshahi Metropolitan Police spokesman Golam Ruhul Quddus.
“Police have set up checkposts at all roads leading to the city to ensure that no one enters the city limits,” he said. “Patrols are also scouring the area and we are doing our utmost to implement the lockdown.”