An extensive review of health and economy of Bangladesh amid Covid-19 pandemic

This document investigates the increasing burden of communicable diseases in Bangladesh - which can be attributable to rapid urbanization, with nearly 50% of all slum dwellers of the country living in the Dhaka division alone. In this paper, the results of a joint survey of the Power and Participation Research Centre and BRAC Institute of Governance and Development are presented, investigating the health and economic impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on Bangladesh.

The study shows that per capita daily income of urban slum and rural poor drops by 80% due to countrywide shutdown enforced by the government to halt the spread of Covid-19. Moreover, 40%-50% of these population took loans to meet the daily expenses. Within the healthcare industry, the country has just 127,000 hospital beds, 91,000 of them in government-run hospitals - once again creating inequalities due to a lack of resources. Lastly, the country's economy is losing BDT 33 billion every day from its service and agriculture sectors during the nationwide shutdown.