Mohammad Al-Masum Molla

Accumulated gas was behind the massive explosion at the ground floor of a three-storey building in the capital’s Moghbazar on Sunday evening, said officials and experts.

One in every 1,000 tuberculosis (TB) patient in Bangladesh has HIV, found a recent study -- in what can be viewed as a boost to the country’s bid to end the infectious disease and meet 90-90-90 targets for HIV by 2030.

Faced with the harsh reality of vaccine nationalism, the government has planned to set up its own vaccine producing plant so that it is not dependent on other countries in future.

Bangladesh will get 2.5 million doses of Moderna Covid vaccine within 10 days under the Covax facility, a global vaccine alliance.

Runaway Covid infections in every division except Dhaka has prompted health experts to recommend “stricter nationwide lockdowns” rather than focusing on protecting Dhaka.

Bangladesh is going to purchase seven crore doses of the Johnson & Johnson’s coronavirus vaccine using the Covid-19 Vaccines Global Access (Covax) facility.

The government is going to allow private hospitals and clinics to conduct antigen-based Covid-19 rapid testing in a bid to expand testing facilities and make those more easily available.

Panchagarh, a bordering district, is home to 11 lakh people. But the number of daily Covid tests in the country’s northernmost district hardly gives any indication of its population.

The authorities are going to resume administering the first shot of Covid-19 vaccines by the end of this week, about a couple of months after its suspension due to a shortage of jabs.

Rivers are likely to erode about 28 square kilometres of land this year, which is more than the land eroded last year, according to a research body of the water resources ministry.

The health ministry asked its officials in certain districts along the border to test the poor people for coronavirus for free.

The government is planning to waive coronavirus testing fee in the northern districts so that more people are tested during the ongoing surge in positivity rates, which are especially high in those regions.

After Sinopharm, the government has started the process of procuring coronavirus vaccine from another Chinese company Sinovac to inoculate most of the country’s 163 million population.

Government research confirmed community transmission of the Delta variant, popularly known as Indian variant, in the country and it also found one unidentified variant of coronavirus.

Over four months have passed with no response from a government body to a local pharmaceutical company’s application to conduct clinical trials for a home-grown Covid-19 vaccine.

The government will start administering Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine at four vaccination centres in the capital from next week.

The government plans to lower the age limit for Covid-19 vaccination as it wants to inoculate students aged above 18 and take them back to classrooms by reopening universities.

Even after fears of widespread inundation and extensive damage, Bhasan Char housing and cyclone shelters stood up well against cyclone Yaas, which made its landfall yesterday evening.

A patient suspected to have mucormycosis, also known as the black fungus, has died in the capital’s Birdem Hospital, doctors said yesterday.

Abdul Hamid was a little wary of coming to Bhasan Char with his wife and three children in December last year.