Access to Health Care 15. The Commission observed that Bangladesh's decent healthcare system became utterly overburdened at the outbreak of COVID-19 causing massive challenges to healthcare access. Initially, many patients who tested COVID-19 positive could not be admitted to hospitals due to space and resource constraints. Hospitals had limited intensive care units (ICUs) required for emergency patients. In some cases, health services for patients not infected with COVID19needed to be restricted or curtailed. Moreover, this pandemic has severely affected Bangladesh’s healthcare workers (HcWs), causing infections of around 7963 persons and the death of around 100 HcWs by October 2020. HcWs were required to work under pressure, and in some cases, they faced resource constraints. The main reasons were the low doctorpatient ratio (only 5.26 to 10,000), lack of testing facilities, overall logistical challenges, etc. 16. Despite constraints, the government undertook praiseworthy activities to alleviate these challenges. People got free vaccination at the initiative of the Government. The government had recruited around 9000 new doctors to combat the pandemic. The government also started to enhance ICUs and other facilities in hospitals. The Commission appreciates all of these endeavours of the government. The Commission recommends that the government continue its effort to improve the availability, affordability and quality of all types of healthcare services including mental health at the primary healthcare level and eliminate discrimination in access to healthcare services for all people. Standard of Living 17. The Commission has taken note of a survey conducted by the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) that about 13% of people became unemployed during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Pandemic has adversely affected the income of working-class urban and rural people and consequently added 16.4 million new poor in Bangladesh. This study estimates that post-pandemic Bangladesh might witness an increase in poverty by 25.13%.3Bangladesh, like other countries, is also facing economic challenges in the postpandemic global geopolitical context. Especially, prices of food and other daily necessities are soaring. It has particularly affected the underprivileged sections of people who have not yet financially recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic. 18. The government has taken several measures to extend social security safety nets to the underprivileged sections of people so as to allow them to maintain a minimum standard of living. For example, the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) launched a subsidised food programme to enable poor and middle-income families to purchase food at subsidised prices from TCB lorries/trucks under the programme. The government has also undertaken programmes to provide cash assistance to poor and middle-income families. The scope and reach of such social security safety nets should be expanded and intensified until the national economy regains its pace at full throttle. Housing ‘13pc People Lost Jobs due to Covid-19 Pandemic: BIDS Survey’ (The Daily Star25 June 2020), available at<https://www.thedailystar.net/business/13pc-people-lost-jobs-in-bangladesh-due-covid-19-pandemic1920309> accessed 31 March 2023. 3 6