Covid-19 Cases among politicians on the rise
The COVID-19 infections among the high-profile politicians and senior bureaucrats have become a cause for concern for the ruling quarter.
The death of a seating state minister, a former minister and several former lawmakers and the infections of the current ministers and lawmakers of the ruling Awami League prompted the party people to think seriousy about it.
At the latest, former Sylhet city mayor and Awami League central executive member Badar Uddin Ahmed Kamran died of COVID-19 at the Combined Military Hospital in Dhaka on early Monday.
Just hours before Kamran’s death, AL leader and state minister for religious affairs Sheikh M Abdullah died at the same hospital on Saturday night and he was found COVID-19 positive after his death.
On Saturday, former health minister and AL presidium member Mohammed Nasim died after 12 days in incentive care at a local hospital where he was admitted with COVID-19 symptoms and was later tested positive.
According to AL insiders, at least eight AL lawmakers and their family members have so far tested positive for COVID-19.
They are — liberation war affairs minister and Gazipur-1 lawmaker AKM Mozammel Huq, Sirajganj-1 lawmaker Mohammed Nasim, Chittagong Hill Tracts affairs minister and Bandarban lawmaker Bir Bahadur U Shwe Sing, Chittagong-8 lawmaker Moslem Uddin Ahmed, Naogaon-2 lawmaker Shahiduzzaman Sarker, Brahmanbaria-5 lawmaker Mohammad Ebadul Karim, Chittagong-16 lawmaker Mustafizur Rahman Chowdhury, Jamalpur-2 lawmaker Faridul Hoque Khan Dulal.
Besides, at least three former lawmakers died of COVID-19.
Of them, former Awami League lawmaker of the Bogura-Joypurhat reserved seat for women died on May 22, former AL lawmaker from Dhaka’s Mohammadpur-Dhanmondi constituency Maqbul Hossain passed away while undergoing treatment at CMH on May 25 and former state minister for finance and planning and Bangladesh Nationalist Party lawmaker Anwarul Kabir Talukder died at CMH on June 14.
Gonoforum lawmaker Mukabbir Khan on Monday was admitted to Combined Military Hospital, Dhaka with COVID-19 symptoms.
The lawmaker was hospitalised at about 3:00pm with breathing problem, Juber Khan, assistant personal secretary of the lawmaker, told New Age.
He said that Sylhet-2 lawmaker was suffering from various complications including fever for the last few days and the breathing complications started from Sunday night.
He said that the physicians already collected samples to run tests.
Some top bureaucrats are also infected with the deadly virus while the wife of the newly appointed health secretary Abdul Mannan died of COVID-19 at CMH in Dhaka on Saturday night.
Health ministry’s health education and family welfare division secretary Ali Nur, his wife and defence secretary Abdullah Al Mohsin Chowdhury tested positive for COVID-19, according to officials.
At least 10 serving and retired admin cadre officials died of COVID-19 while 141 including 80 field officials were infected with the disease so far, according to the data compiled by Bangladesh Administrative Service Association.
Awami League general secretary Obaidul Quader on Monday expressed his concern over the spiralling COVID-19 infection cases among ‘important persons’.
Addressing an online press conference from his official residence in the capital, Quader, also road transport and bridges minister, urged people to follow the necessary health guidelines as the death of national-level politicians, businessmen and people from other disciplines was only increasing.
The government on Monday announced a fresh general holiday for 15 days in areas marked as red and yellow zones in a bid to arrest the spread of novel coronavirus.
The National Technical Advisory Committee for fighting COVID-19 earlier on Sunday recommended 64 areas, including 45 in the capital Dhaka, to mark as red zones for fresh restrictions.
The Cabinet Division in a circular on Monday extended the ongoing countryside restrictions from June 16 to 30 to contain the disease.
News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net
