The massive attack of COVID‐19 in India is a big concern for Bangladesh: The key focus should be given on the interconnection between the countries

To the Editor,

Bangladesh is on the verge of successfully tackling the second wave of the COVID‐19 pandemic. After an alarming surge in the infection rate and fatalities rate in April, there are 37 coronavirus‐related deaths registered in Bangladesh on 7 May 2021, which is the lowest death toll after April 28 this year. ¹ The daily infection rate fell below 10%, and the fatality rate remained almost static (1.53%). There is still a crisis for unoccupied hospital beds, oxygen facilities, ICU beds, ventilators, etc. Inadequate high flow oxygen supply at the public hospitals has become a great cause for concern because proper oxygen supply could be a matter of life and death in the case of COVID‐19 critically ill patients. Healthcare experts blame the government for not being well prepared even after getting one year. ² Bangladesh has made some progress in the healthcare sector to do more with fewer resources. ³ Despite being a developing country, Bangladesh still managed to bag over 10 million doses of Oxford‐AstraZeneca COVID‐19 vaccine purchased from Serum Institute of India (SII). Bangladesh kicked off its COVID‐19 vaccination program on 7 February 2021. ⁴ So far, 5.6 million people have received at least one shot of the Oxford‐AstraZeneca COVID‐19 vaccine. However, the vaccination program has fallen into an alarming situation after SII halted Oxford‐AstraZeneca COVID‐19 vaccine shipments. The neighboring country paused the export of vaccines as the second wave of COVID‐19 devastated the country with a sudden upsurge in infection rate and mortality. ⁵ Therefore, Bangladesh is parallelly searching for an alternate way of getting the vaccine and contacting countries like the USA, Russia, and China. With an urgent call to fight back against the pandemic, the government has opened the largest COVID‐19 dedicated hospital having 150 beds with oxygen supply, 50 ICUs, 50 emergency beds with high flow nasal cannula. The government has curbed the uncontrolled infection rate and high fatalities by imposing month‐long strict lockdown, movement restrictions, and health safety guidelines. ⁶ , ⁷

However, the potential risk of facing the third wave of the COVID‐19 pandemic is now a big concern for Bangladesh. Because the neighboring country India is going through a harrowing situation with the sudden upsurge in the infection rate and fatalities. India is now being flooded with new daily COVID‐19 caseloads and contributing about 50% of the total daily new COVID‐19 cases worldwide. After the emergence of the Indian COVID‐19 variant, daily new COVID‐19 patients overwhelm the hospitals all over India. India has recorded over 400,000 new COVID‐19 patients for the third time in a week as the second wave devastated the country. India has seen an increased infection rate since February due to more contagious variants. Besides, the decision to allow gatherings for religious festivals, political rallies, and elections further deteriorates the situation. We see images of many patients lying on stretchers in the yard of hospitals for admission, many patients dying for not getting oxygen, and the scarcity of ICU beds in hospitals. On the flip side, the crematoriums and burial grounds have swamped with bodies as death toll hikes, family members and relatives are waiting hours to perform the last rites for their loved ones. ⁸ India's total healthcare system has collapsed by the hit of the second wave of the pandemic. Nepal, a neighbor country of India like Bangladesh, is witnessing a record‐breaking upsurge in daily new cases because of the spreading of Indian variants in south Asian countries. The Bangladeshi government has already sealed the land borders with India for 14 days to control the transmission of the Indian variant of coronavirus. Although import and export of goods, commodities through the land borders are open using trucks, lorry, and rails. ⁹ Therefore, the potential spread of the Indian variant among the citizens is a headache for Bangladesh. If this happens, Bangladesh might have to face dire consequences.

The government of Bangladesh should be more careful and prepared to tackle the potential third wave of the COVID‐19 pandemic. Firstly, we expect the authority will emphasize the interconnection between countries because it is the main driving power for the political management of COVID‐19 in this region. Therefore, border management and vaccine availability are the key areas to focus on. Also, the authority should take lessons from India's second wave. The government should set up new oxygen plants, accelerate the production capacity of the existing plants as Bangladesh depends more or less on India for liquefied oxygen. Government must ensure proper screening, detection, isolation of both COVID and non‐COVID personnel coming from abroad. To strengthen the healthcare systems, the government should increase ICU beds, CCU beds, emergency beds with a high‐flow nasal cannula. The authority should increase the COVID‐19 testing capacity and try hard to get COVID‐19 vaccines from other sources. Local pharmaceutical companies ​can be given permission and encouraged to produce vaccines for Bangladesh. The front‐liners of the COVID‐19 battle, such as doctors, nurses, pharmacists, medical technologists, law enforcement agencies, journalists, etc., should be encouraged by providing adequate facilities and mental support. Finally, the law enforcement authorities should implement and execute the health safety guidelines at the field level properly.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST STATEMENT

The author(s) don't have any conflict of interest to declare.

ETHICS STATEMENT

The present study includes printed and published information; therefore, the formal ethical clearance was not applicable for this study.

AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS

Sohel Daria, Md. Asaduzzaman, and Md. Rabiul Islam devised the study and wrote the first draft. Md. Asaduzzaman, Mohammad Shahriar, and Md. Rabiul Islam edited and revised the manuscript. Mohammad Shahriar provided information. All the authors reviewed and approved the final submission.

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT

Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analyzed in this study.