The exact picture of the situation is not available in Bangladesh due to the Covid test fee.A report published in the journal Lancet, a science journal, says that the government’s move to monitor and test for (covid-19) in Bangladesh is undermining the overall coronavirus status verification process.
The report, published on August 29, quoted public health experts in Bangladesh as saying that there was a big difference in the number of regular tests after fixing the fee for the Covid-19 test.
In Bangladesh, free coronavirus samples were tested for several months in the beginning, but at the end of June, the Bangladesh government set the price of the test. The fee for giving samples at the booth or hospital is Tk.200 and the fee for collecting samples from home is Tk.500. However, a few days ago this fee was reduced to 100 taka and 300 taka respectively. The fee for each examination in a private hospital is 3500 taka.
Since the fee was set for the test, the rate of taking the test has come down to 0.8 tests per thousand people per day. In August, the rate dropped to 0.06 per thousand Tests. At present, an average of 12 to 15 thousand samples are being tested every day in Bangladesh.
News Room, August 31,2020