Covid-19 cases may rise in country: Maleque

Health Minister Zahid Maleque Sunday said Covid-19 cases may rise in the country as the new versions of coronavirus are spreading in different countries of the world. "We have to be careful for stopping possible spike of Covid-19 cases in the country," he told the inaugural function of the National Nutrition Week here.

 

Maleque said Bangladesh has become role model for controlling coronavirus as the country successfully handled three waves of the deadly virus.

 

"When almost the entire world was struggling to combat the lethal virus...we have taken multiple measures under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to protect lives of the people from the disease," he said.

The health minister said, "Bangladesh has so far inoculated nearly 25 crore doses of vaccines." He attributed the controlling of third wave of Covid-19 that hit Bangladesh mid-January this year, to expansion of vaccination coverage including booster dose.

Other speakers said Bangladesh has done remarkably well in coming down malnutrition rate particularly stunting children in the past couple of years.

At present, stunting rate in under-five children is 36, which was above 40 percent few years ago, they said, adding there are challenges for Bangladesh to address malnutrition problem as the country is facing higher undernutrition rate compared to different developing countries.