Dhaka, Sept. 3 -- When Hasan Chowdhury, a small trader, died at a private hospital in the capital after taking treatment for five days with Covid symptoms, his family found it next to impossible to get his body released by paying a hefty bill of over Tk 400,000.

The family received the second blow within a year as they had to take a loan last year after spending all the savings to bear the treatment cost of Chowdhury's wife who had been suffering from kidney problems before she died fighting for life at a hospital for over a month.

As Chowdhury's body was lying on a trolley of the hospital for a long time, the close relatives and all family members contributed and got it released and buried him, one of the brothers of the deceased told ...