Director-General of Health Services Abul Kalam Azad has apologised for his comments on the likely duration of the ongoing coronavirus crisis which has caused a stir in many quarters.
Azad appeared in the daily COVID-19 bulletin on Thursday for the first time since his recent recovery from the respiratory illness caused by the virus and said the coronavirus infection could persist for another 'two to three years'.
Road Transport Minister Obaidul Quader ripped into the top health official for his 'irresponsible' comments at a time when Bangladesh is grappling with a worsening coronavirus epidemic which has sickened over 100,000 people.
In a statement on Friday, the DGHS said Azad was 'deeply sorry' for the confusion created by his statement. The script that he was reading from in the online briefing had been hastily prepared and as such, he couldn't carefully review its contents before going public, the DGHS said.
Azad subsequently realised that his statement could cause uncertainty and as such the DGHS, directed the media to quote him from the e-press statement rather than the online briefing.
“The coronavirus situation is not ending in two to three months,” Azad had said in the online briefing, adding that his assumption is based on experiences of different other countries and opinions of public health experts.
“It will last for at least two to three more years, though the level of infection may not remain high,” he had said, according to bdnews24.com.
Later, Azad has clarified that the coronavirus will exist in countries until a successful vaccine is invented and successfully applied to a sufficient number of people, which may take two to three years or even more.
