{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,7]],"date-time":"2026-04-07T20:33:15Z","timestamp":1775593995206,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":51,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"18","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2020,9,4]],"date-time":"2020-09-04T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1599177600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["IJERPH"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Keeping the dynamic nature of Coronaviruses (COVID-19) pandemic in mind, we have opted to explore the importance of the decentralization of COVID-19 testing centers across the country of Bangladesh in order to combat the pandemic. In doing so, we considered quantitative, qualitative, and geographic information systems (GIS) datasets to identify the location of existing COVID-19 testing centers. Moreover, we attempted to collect data from the existing centers in order to demonstrate testing times at the divisional level of the country. Results show that the number of testing centers is not enough to cater to the vast population of the country. Additionally, we found that the number of days it takes to receive the results from the COVID-19 testing centers is not optimal at divisional cities, let alone the remote rural areas. Finally, we propose a set of recommendations in order to enhance the existing system to assist more people under a testing range of COVID-19 viruses at the local level.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ijerph17186439","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,9,4]],"date-time":"2020-09-04T11:24:24Z","timestamp":1599218664000},"page":"6439","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":38,"title":["Challenges of Testing COVID-19 Cases in Bangladesh"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"17","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8018-2355","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Khan Rubayet","family":"Rahaman","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, St. Mary\u2019s University, Halifax, NS B3H 3C3, Canada"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Md. Sultan","family":"Mahmud","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"United Nations, Planning Unit, Shelter and Site Division, Cox\u2019s Bazar 4700, Bangladesh"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9492-1059","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Bishawjit","family":"Mallick","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Chair of Environmental Development and Risk Management, Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Technische Universit\u00e4t Dresden (TUD), 01217 Dresden, Germany"},{"name":"Marie Curie Global Fellow at Institute of Behavioral Science, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO 80302, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,9,4]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","unstructured":"John Hopkins University (2020, June 10). Covid-19 Dashboard by the Center of System Sciences and Engineering at John Hopkins University [Internet]. 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