How can we be so indifferent with so many active Covid-19 cases?

Bangladesh's response to Covid-19 has been one of denial, delay and dereliction from the start, a trend that unfortunately continues even as the country passes one grim milestone after another. According to the latest estimates, Bangladesh is now seventh on the list of countries with the most active cases in the world, and sixteenth in terms of total cases. Among the Asian countries, in terms of total cases, India with its huge population remains well ahead of us and Pakistan is within arm's reach. In terms of active cases, only India is ahead of us. As far as statistics go, this is an extremely disconcerting development.

How should we react to this? The scientific consensus is that we should be extremely worried. Despite the inexplicably low levels of testing in the country, large numbers of people are dying or getting infected every day. But our officials continue to be in denial. Comments by several ministers signal a strategy to use recent low numbers of cases to highlight the "success" of the government, bizarre as it may seem, although a joint survey by IEDCR and icddr,b shows that the actual numbers are far greater than what we are being fed by the government.

Experts say part of this could be because of "response fatigue". The WHO has already urged countries to undertake appropriate Covid-19 response activities to reduce the risk of response fatigue through nuanced and pragmatic steps. These warnings, unfortunately, are falling on deaf ears in Bangladesh. Far from doing the needful, our policymakers are still behaving like the proverbial ostrich pretending that the threats don't exist, as if doing so will make them go away. What they fail to understand is that there are no political points to score in this battle, and you can't simply will it away or hope for herd immunity to develop while people endure unimaginable sufferings. There are no winners or losers in this battle—there are only survivors, and how well we survive depends on how sincere and pragmatic we are in our efforts to contain this virus.

We urge the government to shed its dangerous optimism about the Covid-19 situation in the country and instead focus on the tasks at hand. It must reinvigorate its moribund health departments and facilities to expand testing and ensure treatment for both Covid-19 and general patients. We are still waiting for updates on its earlier decision to impose zonal lockdowns where the situation is especially dire. We are also waiting to see proper action to uproot corruption in the health sector and establish accountability, which is vital to saving lives. These tasks are urgent and doable for a well-meaning administration. Covid-19 is a once-in-a-century health emergency and the government must not shy away from this historic responsibility to appropriately handle this crisis.