Bangladesh’s virus hotspot gasps for air

Empty oxygen cylinders are piling up almost as fast as bodies in the city of Khulna, which has become Bangladesh’s coronavirus hotspot in a dire new surge.

The government has ordered a strict week-long nationwide lockdown in a bid to halt the spread of Covid-19, but Khulna’s hospitals cannot cope. Neither can relatives of the dead.

Mohamed Siddik leaned against empty cylinders under a hospital emergency porch, tearfully telling relatives in phone calls that his 50-year-old brother had died.

The 42-year-old businessman brought his brother to hospital as his condition deteriorated.

But there was no bed and no oxygen, he said.

“He passed away gasping for air in the hospital corridor,” said Siddik. “They didn’t give him any oxygen until the end.”

The southwestern district bordering India’s West Bengal state has seen a sharp rise in coronavirus infections blamed on the more contagious Delta variant, which was first detected in India.

On Thursday, Khulna city recorded 46 virus deaths, according to an official count, while in earlier waves the daily death toll never went into double figures.

Most people in the city of 680,000 people say the real toll is much higher and, according to reports, graveyards cannot cope with the number of dead in nearby cities such as Satkhira.

The main state-run Khulna general hospital is one of four in the city treating coronavirus patients and has 400 beds but demand far outstrips supply.

“We have been dealing with enormous admission pressure in hospitals,” said Niaz Mohamed, chief government doctor for the Khulna region. He denied there was an oxygen shortage.

But another grieving relative also told how her brother had died without oxygen. Afroza shed tears in a hospital ward. “If only they could have given a little oxygen to my brother, he would still be alive,” she said.

Police and troops have patrolled the streets across Bangladesh, home to 168mn people, since Thursday to enforce the lockdown.

Hundreds of people have been arrested each day for leaving their homes.

In Khulna, restrictions on movement have been in place since last month, as the infection rate has soared.

But the city’s factories are still open and many people say they are forced to go out to work.

Student Rafikul Islam said he walked seven kilometres to his part-time factory job as there were no buses.

“Most shops and transport are shut down. But given Khulna’s serious situation, we must maintain this. There is no other way. The situation is dire,” he said.