The average daily sample testing for Covid-19 remained low in the country compared to the global scenario despite the government's preparedness and response plan for coronavirus focused on nationwide expansion of lab testing capacity.
Besides, the national technical advisory committee and experts also emphasised increasing the test capacity per day to 25,000-30,000.
The findings came in a report of the Transparency International, Bangladesh (TIB) titled 'Governance Challenges in Tackling Coronavirus' (the 2nd report on it) on Tuesday.
The lab number has been increased from 60 to 113 between June 16 and October 30, and there are testing labs in 29 districts out 64 districts as of October. Of the total labs, only 46 are out of the Dhaka district, it read.
Despite the increased number of labs, the sample testing is still low, the report showed.
During the period between June 15 and June 30, the average daily testing number was 16,664, highest till date whereas it was 13,967 between October 16 and 30 on average.
Besides, the infection rate and number were seen rising when the sample testing number got increased, the report added.
The World Health Organization (WHO) recommended that testing should be done to the extent that the per cent of COVID-19 positive remains below 5.0 per cent, but in Bangladesh the average percentage is 17.9 (highest is 31.9 per cent).
A positivity rate over 5.0 per cent indicates an increased transmission of the virus and insufficient testing.
Besides, there is a lack of expansion of COVID-19 testing facilities throughout the country whereas different countries have taken initiatives, including financial incentives to increase the number of Covid-19 tests.
