Experts and virologists are still divided on the corona test procedure, although there is a strong demand for increasing the number of tests from the very beginning.
The number of COVID-19 cases in Bangladesh has reached 424 in one month which is much higher than that of many other countries during this time.
India had 200 cases in 45 days and in Brazil it was only within 15 days.
Bangladesh had 218 cases on April 08. The first case was detected on March 08. This means the situation will be worse than those countries within the next 15 days.
Brazil had 15,000 cases and India 5,500 cases in the first 45 days. Observing this trend, experts have projected that Bangladesh might have 7500 patients.
They suggested that the government set a target to test at least 50,000 samples by the next 10 days for better preparation to combat the pandemic here.
Many experts recommended an antibody test to achieve the target while others are for continuing with the PCR test.
The government is yet to decide on the test system it should adopt.
National Institute of Laboratory Medicine and Referral Centre director Prof Dr Shamsuzzaman said COVID-19 has spread to the remotest upazilas, indicating huge community transmission of the virus.
Antibody detection-based test is essential at a certain phase of the epidemic. Bangladesh is at the primary stage of the epidemic, he told the FE.
It will need another three weeks to understand how far people have developed immunity against COVID-19.
At that point, rapid test can be a viable option.
"We tested 84 samples on Thursday and found eight positive. Of the total cases, six were from the remotest Itna upazila in Kishoreganj," said Dr Zaman.
On the use of rapid test kit in the USA and Canada for fast detection of cases, he said they do it to detect ribonucleic acid through using GeneXpert machine.
Bangladesh has currently 250 GeneXpert machines but those cannot be used for a lack of test kits which are supplied by the US manufacturer only.
The Food and Drug Administration has approved the machine as emergency use authorisation on March 27.
Bangladesh should not expect any test kit for GeneXpert until COVID-19 comes under control in the USA, Dr Zaman observed.
"We must achieve the target of 50,000 tests within 10 days through PCR by utilising existing facilities and increasing capacities of labs and mobilising more medical technologists from private sector."
"There is a shortage of medical technologists as 70 per cent posts are vacant due to non-recruitment of technologists for 12 years," the physician stated.
One laboratory with one machine can do 150 tests a day by running the test in two shifts. Currently, 16 labs are doing tests.
The government has declared to prepare 28 labs for COVID-19 tests by April.
Contradicting his view, Prof Dr Saifullah Munshi, chairman of virology department at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, said a single PCR test costs Tk 3,000.
Bangladesh should go for rapid test with the kits, which have the competent authority (CA) approval, from South Korea and China.
"We're still not doing sufficient tests, although we're moving towards the fourth stage of this epidemic. When we will get 4,000-5,000 cases, we will enter into that stage," he said.
"In that case, we need to go for rapid test which USA and Canada is doing with the CA approved test kits of South Korea and China."
Dr Munshi, however, dismissed the idea of household-level random test in Bangladesh like that of South Korea where 600 labs are engaged in COVID-19 tests.
"PCR test is very expensive and we don't either financial or lab capacity to test at household level. We should focus on the people with specific symptoms."
"We're testing mainly the outdoor patients coming to our fever unit. We've tested 550 samples in eight days and very minimum samples from other hospitals," he said.
"We got 40 positive cases out of 59 people Thursday and 75 people out of 236 samples in seven days," Dr Munshi added.
He said the directorate general of health must have a projection regarding the number of cases within the next couple of days and take preparations regarding the intervention needed.
As Bangladesh will enter the fourth stage within three to four days, the government should initiate to mitigate it. It should enforce a curfew at hotspots by ensuring essential services.
Physicians, nurses and technicians of private hospitals and their ICU units should be used. Tests should be allowed at private hospitals, Dr Munshi suggested.
