Doctor, Saudi returnee test positive for coronavirus in Dhaka
Police and local authorities confirmed the information to bdnews24.com on Tuesday. But it could not be confirmed whether the two are among the total 51 patients reported by the government’s disease control agency IEDCR. After the result of the doctor’s test came out, seven people of his residence in the capital’s Paribagh were placed into home quarantine, Shahbagh Police Station OC Abul Hasan told bdnews24.com. Nawabganj Upazila Executive Officer AHM Salahuddin Monju said 12 families in a neighbourhood were ordered to remain in home quarantine after a member of one of them, the returnee, had tested positive.
Source:bd News24
March 31, 2020 21:56 UTC
Bangladesh to make ventilators for COVID-19 patients as Medtronic shares design
With no letting-up in deaths and new infections, developed nations like the US and the UK have moved for large-scale production of ventilators to give the COVID-19 patients respiratory support. Even carmakers in these countries are stepping forward to manufacture ventilators as the global total of coronavirus infections crossed 800,000 on Tuesday. Medtronic has also extended cooperation to Bangladesh with its researchers and technology experts. Palak said Walton, MyOne, Celltron, a2i Innovation Lab, MIST, Minister Electronics, Startup Bangladesh and iDEA have also been included in the efforts to produce the ventilators. Medtronic, which supplies mainly to the US, announced on Monday that it has shared its ventilation design specifications to “accelerate efforts to increase global ventilator production”.
Source:bd News24
March 31, 2020 20:37 UTC
Las Vegas places homeless people in a parking lot, 6 feet apart
The city of Las Vegas and Clark County on Saturday opened the shelter, on the upper floor of a convention centre parking lot, after the temporary closure of a 500-person homeless shelter run by Catholic Charities after a homeless man there tested positive for the coronavirus. More than 6,500 Las Vegas residents lack permanent housing and nearly 70% of the city’s homeless population sleeps outside, according to the Las Vegas government. With a nearby homeless shelter overflowing, officials decided to expand into the parking lot, at the Cashman Center convention complex about seven miles from the Las Vegas Strip. A homeless person walks by a temporary parking lot shelter at Cashman Center, with spaces marked for social distancing to help slow the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Las Vegas, Nevada, US March 30, 2020. Las Vegas officials said they are concerned about the long-term financial impacts of the coronavirus shutdowns.
Source:bd News24
March 31, 2020 18:45 UTC
Patient dies at COVID-19 isolation ward of BITID in Chattogram’s Faujdarhat
The patient, a woman in her late 50s from the south of the port city, was transferred to BITID from the Chattogram Medical College Hospital’s cardiology department on Tuesday. She died around 8pm, BITID Director MA Hasan Chowdhury said. She was also suffering from diabetes and high blood pressure,” he said. BITID, one of the 10 facilities where the coronavirus tests are being conducted, will test specimens from the patient on Wednesday, Hasan said. The institute ran tests on specimens from 33 people until Tuesday but none was found infected with the virus.
Source:bd News24
March 31, 2020 18:22 UTC
Bangladesh announces moratorium on water supply disconnection
“The connections cannot be cut off until the impact of the coronavirus outbreak is brought under control,” according to the orders sent to different government agencies, officials and public representatives on Tuesday. The Local Government Division has sent separate orders to the managing directors of water supply and sewerage authorities or WASAs of four divisional cities, chief executives of the other city corporations, municipality mayors and the chief engineer at the Department of Public Health Engineering. In one of the orders, the government asked the WASAs to keep water and soap or hand sanitiser at key spots. It asked them to conduct campaigns on prevention of COVID-19, but to do so without any public gathering. “Connections cannot be cut off even if the users fail to pay bills, or other complexities arise,” a Local Government Division official said, noting that washing hands with soap is key to prevent infection from the virus.
Source:bd News24
March 31, 2020 16:07 UTC
The days of doing nothing
The days of doing nothingThe working class of Dhaka along with the rest of the people in Bangladesh are passing their days at home or resting wherever they can as the government has announced weeks of general holidays so that people can avoid infection amid a coronavirus pandemic. Photo: Asif Mahmud OveA family of low-income people watching TV at Beribandh in Dhaka's Lalbagh on Tuesday during a shutdown to stem the coronavirus outbreak. Photo: Asif Mahmud OveA family of low-income people watching TV at Beribandh in Dhaka's Lalbagh on Tuesday during a shutdown to stem the coronavirus outbreak. Photo: Asif Mahmud OveRickshawpullers, with no rider in Dhaka on Tuesday during a shutdown to stem the coronavirus outbreak, taking a nap at Tikatuli. Photo: Asif Mahmud Ove Previous Next
Source:bd News24
March 31, 2020 16:07 UTC
US massively expanding hospitals as coronavirus death toll surpasses China's
That will allow existing hospitals to focus on patients with COVID-19, the respiratory ailment caused by the coronavirus. Worldwide, there are now more than 800,000 cases of the highly contagious illness caused by the virus and more than 39,000 deaths reported. The state reported another 332 deaths on Tuesday, raising its total to 1,550, and another 9,298 new cases. Authorities in New Orleans, Los Angeles and Chicago also were setting up field hospitals and convention centres. The medical surgery unit at New York-Presbyterian Hospital's Hudson Valley branch has 17 coronavirus patients, more than half its capacity, said nurse Emily Muzyka, 25.
Source:bd News24
March 31, 2020 15:33 UTC
Police ask BTRC to block social media accounts that spread coronavirus rumours
In a statement on efforts to stop the spread of the rumours, Additional Inspector General of Police Md Sohel Rana on Tuesday said they had also asked Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission to take action against these accounts. “We are also working at the moment to identify and locate people involved with spreading rumours from 82 other accounts, pages and sites,” Rana said. Police have made arrests in Chandpur, Khagrachhari, Chottogram, Dhaka and Kishoreganj, he said. “Operation is going on to arrest some other people accused of spreading rumours,” he added.
Source:bd News24
March 31, 2020 15:22 UTC
No proof Trump-touted drug is effective against coronavirus, EU says
Trump had said that hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malaria drug, could be among "the biggest game changers in the history of medicine" for its potential effects against COVID-19. "The efficacy of hydroxychloroquine in the treatment of COVID-19 patients has to date not been proved," a spokesman for the European Commission said on Tuesday, relaying an internal opinion from the European Medicine Agency. The spokesman said there was also no evidence either of the positive effects of chloroquine, another malaria drug, which is also being tested for its possible use against COVID-19. The US Health and Human Services on Thursday listed hydroxychloroquine as a protected medical resource after Trump signed an executive order to prevent its hoarding and price gouging. "As Hungary is one of the world's largest exporters of this ingredient, the protection and medical supply of the Hungarian population is now a priority," the government said.
Source:bd News24
March 31, 2020 14:03 UTC
Russian doctor who met Putin last week diagnosed with coronavirus
Putin visited the Kommunarka hospital last Tuesday where he chatted to the doctor, Denis Protsenko. Protsenko, writing on Facebook said: "Yes, I have tested positive for coronavirus, but I feel pretty good. The Kremlin said that Putin was being regularly tested for coronavirus and that "everything is okay," the RIA news agency reported. FILE PHOTO: Russian President Vladimir Putin listens to Denis Protsenko, chief physician of a hospital for patients infected with coronavirus disease (COVID-19), as they walk at the hospital, on the outskirts of Moscow, Russia March 24, 2020. Sputnik/Alexey Druzhinin/Kremlin/File Photo via REUTERSPutin donned a hazmat suit and a respirator during his visit to the hospital last week when dropping in on patients.
Source:bd News24
March 31, 2020 13:52 UTC
Mobile internet trends up, voice drops as virus impact pans out
People are using more internet data at home as they are forced to spend all their time at home. This has, in turn, triggered a fall in mobile phone calls as users are already staying with their families. However, the use of internet data rose 21 percent during the holidays, Shahed Alam, chief corporate and regulatory officer of Robi, told bdnews24.com. Muhammad Hasan, spokesperson for Grameenphone, highlighted 'mixed trends' when it comes to the use of voice and internet data. “Customers are using more internet data but the rise isn't very significant,” Ankit Sureka, senior manager of Banglalink's corporate communications, told bdnews24.com.
Source:bd News24
March 31, 2020 12:45 UTC
Bottling it? Plastic pollution from Coca-Cola, PepsiCo fuels emissions
Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Nestle and Unilever are responsible for half a million tonnes of plastic pollution annually in the six developing countries examined in the report released by international aid agency Tearfund. Petrochemicals derived from oil and gas, which are carbon-rich fossil fuels, form the building blocks for plastic products. An earlier 2019 report from UK-based Tearfund found that up to a million people die every year in poor countries from illnesses caused by discarded waste and plastic pollution. The company was aiming for every plastic bottle to contain "at least 50% recycled plastic by 2030", it said, adding that the Tearfund report "raises some serious issues". Unilever also said in a statement it planned to help collect and process more plastic packaging than it sells by 2025.
Source:bd News24
March 31, 2020 12:22 UTC
Millennial Money: Managing the high cost of infertility
Some also extend discounts to people in certain professions, including teachers, members of the military, and police and firefighters. — SHARED RISK: Your fertility clinic may offer a shared risk program, which typically offers multiple IVF cycles for a flat rate. This can save you tens of thousands of dollars if it takes multiple IVF cycles for you to conceive. And most patients who enroll in these programs conceive from their first egg retrieval, according to data from FertilityIQ. EVALUATE YOUR PAYMENT OPTIONSSpiegel and her husband funded their treatment primarily via savings and budgeting, but that’s not realistic for everyone.
Source:Daily Sun
March 31, 2020 11:26 UTC
Millions of 'invisible' stateless could be denied help if they get coronavirus
They urged every country to ensure all stateless people on their territory can receive free medical assistance and help to self-isolate without risk of arrest or detention. If you are stateless you are invisible to the state, but you are not invisible to the virus," said Joshua Castellino, executive director of Minority Rights Group International. Some of the biggest stateless populations are in Myanmar, Ivory Coast, Thailand and Dominican Republic. Campaigners also said hundreds of thousands of stateless Rohingya, who live in crowded camps in Bangladesh and in Myanmar, were especially vulnerable. People end up stateless for a host of complex historical, social and legal reasons, including migration, flawed citizenship laws and ethnic discrimination.
Source:bd News24
March 31, 2020 11:15 UTC
Thailand to give free mobile data for those homebound by coronavirus
"Individuals can register for 10 gigabytes (GB) of mobile data each month starting April 10," said Takorn Tantasith, secretary-general of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunication Commission. Thailand on Tuesday reported 127 new coronavirus cases, bringing the national tally up to 1,651 since the country's first case was reported in January. Third-ranked mobile operator, Total Access Communication Pcl (DTAC) said it was considering accelerating investment to expand its mobile data footprint based on new patterns of usage. Top mobile operator, Advanced Info Service Pcl has seen mobile data and broadband volume growth of over 10% in the last month, chief consumer business officer Pratthana Leelapanang, told Reuters. Rival operator, True Corporation Pcl said last week it would triple its broadband capacity after seeing a 52% increase in broadband use and 18.4% jump in mobile data usage in the last month.
Source:bd News24
March 31, 2020 11:15 UTC