Dhaka, May 8 -- It is now 2 months since Bangladesh officially detected its first patient infected with the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 that surfaced in Wuha, China last December. Since that first case on March 8, that was followed 10 days later with the reports of the first death, including the latest numbers from Friday, we find the total number of infected has reached 13,134, while 206 people have died from Covid-19, the name given to the disease associated with the virus.

Rather frustratingly, what the country has not yet been able to establish is just how widespread the disease might be among the general population, which could allow for some estimates on when the caseload might peak, and thus allow the government to plan according...