Column by Mahfuz Anam: Lockdown chaos -- is it because we don’t value human lives?

Here we were, sailing quite smoothly after the first wave of the pandemic and congratulating ourselves for having "handled" it well. Even the WHO paid us compliments. But suddenly, within a few weeks, we seem to have gone right back where we started. The Covid-19 infection rate is galloping, crossing the 7,000-mark in recent days, while the death rate is also rising fast, with April 8 recording 74 deaths, the highest in a single day in Bangladesh—taking the total number of casualties to 9,521. Meanwhile, hospitals are overflowing with patients, struggling with the same old problems of inadequate emergency facilities, dearth of hospital beds, non-availability of ICUs and a general absence of oxygen supply throughout the country.