Infection rate drops to 2.09%, lowest in 18 months

Bangladesh on Friday reported an 18-month low 2.09 per cent Covid-19 positivity rate in a 24-hour period till 8:00am.

Last year, on April 4, the country witnessed a 2.07 per cent positivity rate.

Health authorities also reported 9 new coronavirus-related deaths and 396 infections during this period.

Friday’s caseload is the lowest in 83 days since July 22 when 3,697 cases were reported.

Continuing a downward trend, the positivity rate dropped further down to 2.09 per cent from Thursday’s 2.16 per cent.

The overall caseload now stands at 15,64,881 and the total fatalities at 27,746 according to the press release issued by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).

Health authorities reported the latest figures after testing 18,980 samples at 829 laboratories across the country.

Bangladesh has so far tested 1,00,61,245 samples.

Meanwhile, 523 patients recovered from the deadly infection in the last 24-hours, raising the overall recovery to 15,26,891.

Among the fresh fatalities, four were males and five were females.

Dhaka division logged the highest deaths with six fatalities, followed by two in Chattogram, and one in Sylhet.

Bangladesh reported its first cases on March 8 last year and the first coronavirus-related death on March 18 the same year.