Italy returnee with coronavirus symptoms dies in Kishoreganj

A 60-year-old man, who returned from Italy recently, died at a private hospital in Bhairab in the northern district of Kishoreganj on Sunday night with coronavirus symptoms, doctors said.

The deceased Abdul Khalek returned home from Italy on February 28, reports United News of Bangladesh.

“He had been suffering from fever and breathing problem but did not get hospitalized,” Civil Surgeon Mohamad Mojibur Rahman said.

His family took him to a private clinic around 10:30pm after his condition deteriorated but doctors there referred him to another hospital.

Khalek was pronounced dead when he was brought to the hospital, said the civil surgeon.

A team from the Institute of Epidemiology Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) has collected his blood sample.

“Family members and neighbours of the man have been put in home quarantine,” the civil surgeon said, adding that doctors of the two hospitals have been asked to stay at their workplaces.

Bangladesh has so far confirmed two coronavirus deaths and 27 cases. But only a fraction of people who returned from abroad, particularly coronavirus-hit European countries, have been tested.

Earlier, a woman who returned from the UK died at a Sylhet hospital with coronavirus symptoms.

COVID-19, first reported in China in December, has infected 337,570 people globally and killed 14,655 of them – a mortality rate of 13 percent.

Thousands of Bangladeshis have returned from various countries since the outbreak started and most of them did not follow the rules of home quarantine.

Health experts say a coronavirus outbreak in a densely-populated country like Bangladesh will be difficult to tackle.

Kamruzzaman