There has been a sudden increase in the number of COVID-19 related calls to the health hotline 16263 has suddenly increased. You can get any health advice by calling this number.

There was one death from COVID-19 reported in the country this Thursday. While the situation is not yet alarming, the prevalence of the disease is rising in the country. At the same time, the number of calls to 16263 is increasing as well.

Nizam Uddin Ahmed, chief executive officer (CEO) of the health hotline, told Prothom Alo on Sunday, “Since the recent death from COVID-19, we’ve been receiving significantly more calls related to the virus, something we weren’t seeing before. The Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) is also speaking of a rise in COVID-19 cases.”

In this situation, public health experts are calling for increasing the number of test kits and restarting the vaccination programme to contain the possible spread of the virus.

They recommend that vaccinations be resumed not only for the elderly people, pregnant women, and those with other critical health conditions, but also for individuals who received the last dose of vaccine over six months ago.