Home ›› 18 Jul 2021 ›› Front
Rashad Ahamad
Thousands of holidaymakers continued to travel to their village homes on Saturday overlooking health risks posed by the highly infectious Delta variant of coronavirus.
The stream of people and vehicles caused traffic jams on key highways including Dhaka-Tangail, Dhaka-Chattogram and Dhaka-Aricha.
Huge crowds were seen at bus and ferry terminals where people gathered to leave the city to celebrate the Eid-ul-Azha with their loved ones. Government-issued health guidelines were largely flouted at these places.
“I could not go home during the last Eid-ul-Fitr, so I’m braving the odds this time,” said Tanvir Hasan, an employee of a non-government organisation.
Number of tests, cases fall
On Saturday, the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) recorded 204 deaths and 8,489 new coronavirus cases in a 24-hour period.
The death rate increased 15.90 per cent and infection rate 13.74 per cent last week compared to the week before, according to the DGHS.
Last week, 1,480 people died of coronavirus while 83,096 new cases were reported. Virologist and former vice-chancellor of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University Professor Nazrul Islam however warned that the situation would deteriorate further if people violated health guidelines.
With the latest fatalities, the death tally reached 17,669 and infections to 10,92,411. The health authorities tested 29,214 samples at 627 laboratories. The positivity rate stood at 29.06 per cent.
Health department’s spokesperson Robed Amin said that the country was going through a severe Covid situation but the government had to withdraw the lockdown considering the economic condition.
He said that no one will be safe until everyone was vaccinated.
Robed said that people largely ignored the health guidelines and travelled home when the positivity and death rates were rising.
Meanwhile, 8,820 people recovered from the virus infection, taking the total number of recoveries to 9,23,163.
Among the deceased, 125 were male and 79 female. DGHS data show that 202 of them died at hospitals and the rest at homes. Dhaka division reported 82 deaths, Chattogram 32, Rajshahi 20, Khulna 49, Rangpur 10, Barishal five, Sylhet two and Mymensingh four.
Bangladesh first reported coronavirus cases on March 8, 2020 and first death 10 days later.
