Covid positivity rate below 5pc for 2nd day in a row

Bangladesh on Wednesday reported 36 new Covid-19 deaths with infection rate at 4.79 per cent, below 5 per cent for the second consecutive day.

This is a slight increase in the positivity rate from Tuesday’s 4.69 per cent. On Tuesday, the country witnessed the lowest case positivity rate in more than six months. Health authorities also reported 1,376 fresh infections in a 24-hour period till 8:00am on Wednesday.

The overall caseload now stands at 15,47,176 and the total fatalities at 27,313 according to the press release issued by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).

The latest figures were reported after testing 28,736 samples at 810 laboratories across the country. Bangladesh has so far tested 95,27,150 samples.

Meanwhile, 1,427 patients recovered from the deadly infection in the last 24-hours, raising the overall recovery to 15,06,136.

Among the fresh fatalities, 17 were males and 19 were females.

Dhaka division logged the highest deaths with 18 fatalities, followed by 10 in Chattogram; two each in Rajshahi, Sylhet and Khulna; and one each in Rangpur and Mymensingh.

Barishal division reported no new deaths.

Bangladesh reported its first cases on March 8 last year and the first coronavirus-related death on March 18 the same year. Meanwhile, the global Covid-19 caseload reached 230,394,270 and the death toll to 4,724,464 till Wednesday morning, according to US-based Johns Hopkins University (JHU) update.