DHAKA: As the number of confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus continues to rise in Bangladesh, experts say the South Asian nation may see a peak in infections in the next two weeks.
The country on Monday registered 1,602 new infections of Covid-19, with 21 deaths, marking the single day record in the country of around 165 million population.
“Bangladesh may see a peak in Covid-19 cases in next two weeks or so,” said Dr Bijon Kumar Sil, leader of a Bangladeshi research team at Gonoshasthaya Kendra Hospital that invented a $3 test kit that can detect the coronavirus in less than 15 minutes.
Since the first positive cases of the virus was recorded in the country on March 8, both the cases and deaths have continued to increase manifold.
The total number of positive cases was around 6,000 on May 1 and in the span of 18 days now the figure stands at 23,870 with 349 deaths.
As the world still waiting for a vaccine to fight the virus, Bangladeshi experts and virologists consider natural herd immunity among a majority of the population as the strongest weapon against the virus.
Herd immunity and antibodies
Dr Sil told Anadolu Agency that after getting the final approval from the government about using their indigenous test kit they could begin the rapid testing ant then the number of infections could be reduced accordingly
Sil had also invented a similar kit for detecting the SARS coronavirus while working in Singapore during the outbreak in 2003. The Chinese government bought the patent for the kit.
