Wasim Bin Habib

When Gazi Sabiha Chowdhury, a 70-year-old heart and kidney patient from Sreemangal, fell in the bathroom on May 31, her family felt something ominous was going to happen.

For 50-year-old Md Mostafa and his wife, last weekend was nothing short of a nightmare. He shuttled from one hospital to another in the capital with his ailing wife Sathi Khanam, a kidney patient, only to be turned away.

Over three weeks ago, the government had planned to enforce containment zones in the capital and three other major cities amid a spike in Covid-19 infections and deaths that came after the nationwide shutdown was lifted.

As Covid-19 cases kept going up in mid-April, the government formed a national technical advisory committee to find ways to prevent the spread of the deadly virus in the country.

There was confusion all around. As the news of the government preparing a list of virus hotspots to be categorised as red zones spread, the city residents got puzzled and panicked.

With numbers of reported new cases and deaths growing almost every day, Bangladesh has overtaken China in terms of confirmed coronavirus cases.

“Good decisions come from experience, but experience comes from making bad decisions.”

Ever since Belayat Ahmed completed his graduation two years ago from a college under the National University, he applied to different private companies and submitted his resume to a few job boards.

Ensuring uninterrupted oxygen supplies at hospitals appears to have emerged as the latest choke point in the battle against the coronavirus outbreak, which is bearing down on the country.

While the country’s healthcare system remains under severe strain following record surge in coronavirus infections almost every day, a team of researchers warn that the total number of confirmed cases could double by the end of this month.

The government is likely to put the capital, Narayanganj and Gazipur in the “red zone” with severe restrictions in the wake of rising Covid-19 deaths and infections in the city areas.

The country saw its highest one-day death toll from Covid-19 and a record new cases of infections yesterday, the day the government eased the nationwide shutdown ignoring warnings from experts.

The roaring, howling sound was what stayed with us all night.

The country reported a record single-day surge of detected coronavirus cases -- 1,034 -- as the tally crossed the 15,000 mark, while 11 new deaths took the death toll to 239.

The national technical advisory committee on Covid-19 recommends reconsidering the government's decision of reopening shopping malls and other businesses, saying such a move could lead to further transmission of the deadly coronavirus.

While health officials still do not know when the coronavirus outbreak will peak and then plateau, confirmed coronavirus cases crossed the 10,000 mark with the announcement of a record 688 new cases yesterday.

Thousands of garment workers yesterday returned to work in industrial belts in Dhaka and elsewhere amid the nationwide shutdown, raising fears of a rapid spread of the novel coronavirus.

When the country is grappling with community transmission of novel coronavirus, more than one third of doctors at private hospitals surveyed said they have still not been provided with any personal protective equipment (PPE).

Despite the continued surge in the number of confirmed Covid-19 deaths and cases, Health Minister Zahid Maleque yesterday claimed that Bangladesh was better off than the US and some European countries.

As the country continues to grapple with coronavirus crisis amid a surge in deaths and infections, experts hint that the outbreak is gradually approaching its peak.