The mosquito drives by the Dhaka city corporations have gone sluggish although the dengue outbreak is far from being under control.
Dhaka North and Dhaka South employees designated for the drives are not seen in the field and no new programmes have been announced.
Amid the dengue outbreak the local government division cancelled the holidays of all city corporation staffers.
However, DNCC has withdrawn the order while DSCC is allowing holiday once a week on account of employees falling ill.
According to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) total of 287 dengue patients have been admitted to different hospitals across Bangladesh in the last 24 hours as of Sunday (Oct 13).
Till 8am on Sunday, 100 new patients were admitted in Dhaka and 187 in districts outside Dhaka.
The Health Emergency Operation Centre and Control Room at the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), in a press release issued on Sunday, said the number of patients currently undergoing treatment in government and private hospitals in the country was 1,132.
A total of 93 dengue patients have died across Bangladesh from Jan 1 till Oct 4, according to their own collected data. However, the unofficial death toll is reported to be around 180 so far.
As many as 417 patients were currently receiving treatment in 41 government and private hospitals in Dhaka, whereas 715 people were undergoing treatment outside Dhaka, the DGHS data said.
Since Jan 1 till Oct10, as many as 91,866 people have been affected by the mosquito borne virus.
Among those admitted, a total of 90,492 have been released from their respective hospitals and clinics after treatment.
Despite the high numbers, the staffers said that mosquito repellents are not sprayed as frequently as before.
Many said that they are exhausted and many are ill leading to the mosquito drives becoming lax.
According to a document signed by DSCC health official Dr Mir Mostafizur, the DSCC has been conductive mobile court raids and larvae drives in its own wards since July and as of Oct 10 inspected 5,583 houses.
During these drives, they collected fines over Tk 3.6 millions for discovering Aedes mosquito larvae in the houses or under construction buildings.
Meanwhile, the DNCC carried out ‘combing operations’ in two phases in its wards. According to media statements they inspected 6,982 houses during the first phase where they found mosquito larvae in 1,893 houses. During the second phase they found larvae in the 284 houses out of the 30, 308 inspected.
Dhaka North is currently more focused in evicting illegal roadside establishments rather than the mosquito drive although its areas have been found to be more appropriate breeding ground for Aedes mosquitoes.
“Dengue in the areas under our jurisdiction is under control,” DNCC Chief Executive Officer Abdul Hai told Bangla Tribune.
He added that the drives will start again in full swing next week and the staffers are being given holidays as the situation was under control.
Meanwhile, DSCC Chief Executive Officer Abdul Hai said that the employees are working throughout the weekend as well but some are being allowed holidays once a week as they are falling ill and an employee has even died.
“The dengue control cell will operate till Oct 30,” he said and added that if needed programmes and raids will be increased.