Khaleda Zia’s health has improved while undergoing treatment at the Coronary Care Unit at Dhaka’s Evercare Hospital, says BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir.
Her condition is “improving, but very slowly”, Fakhrul told the media after placing flowers at the grave of Ziaur Rahman on Eid day on Friday, reports bdnews24.com.
“She has improved quite a lot recently,” Fakhrul said.
“But the doctors told me yesterday [Thursday] that ‘still her condition is critical’. But they added that she has improved on many counts and they are hopeful she will recover soon.”
The BNP chairperson, who was released from prison by executive order but is still carrying out a sentence, was admitted to the hospital on Apr 27 after she tested positive for COVID-19.
Though the 76-year-old former prime minister has recently tested negative for the coronavirus, she is still suffering from health complications. Her family had petitioned the government to allow her to go abroad for treatment, but it was denied.
Khaleda’s treatment is being overseen by a 10-member medical board led by Evercare Hospital heart specialist Dr Shahabuddin Talukder.
Fakhrul was accompanied by BNP Standing Committee members Mirza Abbas, Gayeswar Chandra Roy and Nazrul Islam Khan during the visit to Zia’s grave. But afterwards he went to Evercare Hospital alone.
Doctors had requested that no one come to visit her at the hospital as she was still in the CCU, so none of her close relatives came to see her on Eid day, as of 5 pm.
Members of the BNP Standing Committee had previously met with Khaleda Zia at her Gulshan home on the two Eids last year. But, as she is in hospital, they have no plans to visit this time.
“This time we have little chance of seeing her because the doctors have forbid it,” Fakhrul said.
In 2018, Khaleda Zia was sentenced to jail over a graft case and imprisoned at the Dhaka Central Prison. She was later transferred to a cabin at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University while still in custody and spent two Eids there.
The prison authorities had allowed visits from relatives and friends on Eid and they had even permitted them to bring her food.