The epidemic of coronavirus infection has turned into a terrible form in the country’s north-eastern division Sylhet. In the last 24 hours, nine people died from the infection in the division, which was the highest death toll so far there. At the same time, 362 new coronaviruses were detected during the same period.

As the number of coronavirus infected patients increases, so does the number of deaths. Due to this, the demand for ICU (Intensive Care Unit) beds as well as general beds has increased at an unusual rate. However, as there are less ICU beds than the demand, the existing hospitals here are struggling to provide ICU services to the patients.

The hospitals dedicated for treating coronavirus patients in Sylhet division have 74 ICU beds. Of which, at the government level, there are 16 beds at the Covid-19 Dedicated Shaheed Shamsuddin Ahmed Hospital, 8 at Osmani Medical College Hospital and 5 at Moulvibazar Modern Hospital. Apart from this, there are 45 more beds in private hospitals. However, there are no ICU beds for coronavirus infected patients in government hospitals in the other two districts of the division, Sunamganj and Habiganj.

According to the Sylhet Divisional Office of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), a total of 492 coronavirus infected patients have been admitted to the government and private hospitals in Sylhet division until 8:00 am on Wednesday (July 7). Of them, 444 patients are admitted to the hospitals in Sylhet district while 23 in Sunamganj, 7 in Habiganj and 18 in Moulvibazar hospitals.

As the number of coronavirus infected patients in Sylhet division has been increasing rapidly for the last few days, the ICU beds of all the government and private hospitals dedicated for corona have been filled up with patients. Due to this, no new patient is going to be admitted in ICU. There are no vacancies in the ICU of government hospitals as well as private hospitals. So, people are not able to admit their patients even after going there.

Dr Nure Alam Shamim, Assistant Director of Health Department (Disease Control) said, “it will not be possible to tackle the situation as new cases are increasing day by day. At the rate patients are increasing, it is also not possible to increase ICU beds. In this situation, It the most important thing to overcome this crisis is maintaining health guidelines.

So he urged everyone to follow the hygiene rules including use face mask.