Bangladesh on Monday registered 6,676 fresh Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours while the daily infection rate jumped to 20.88 per cent.
The country also logged 10 more deaths over the same period, pushing the tally up to 28,154.
The test positivity rate has been witnessing an upward trend since the start of the new year, rising from 2.43 per cent on January 1.
On Sunday, the positivity rate stood at 17.82 per cent.
With the fresh infections, the number of total caseload reached 16,24,387, according to the daily virus update by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) released on Monday afternoon.
Health authorities reported the latest figures after testing 31,980 samples at 855 laboratories across the country. Bangladesh has so far tested 1,18,93,405 samples.
Meanwhile, 427 patients recovered from the deadly infection in the last 24 hours, raising the overall recovery to 15,53,320.
Bangladesh reported its first cases on March 8, 2020, and the first coronavirus-related death on March 18 the same year.
The daily case positivity rate reached its peak 32.55 per cent on July 24 last year.
80% still infected with Delta variant
Earlier on the day, DGHS Director General Professor ABM Khurshid Alam disclosed that the daily positivity rate in the country has climbed to 20.88 per cent.
Among the infected, 80 per cent people have contracted Covid’s Delta variant, even though Omicron is more contagious variant now across the world, the DGHS chief said during a press briefing in Dhaka.
Mentioning that 80 per cent of the infected people were not vaccinated, he urged all to get inoculated and maintain health guidelines as much as possible.
DGHS Additional Director General Meerjady Sabrina Flora said that they have no plan yet to impose any lockdown considering the socio-economic reality of the country.
However, she urged people to stop arranging social events with huge public gathering.
Omicron cases rise to 55
Twenty-two more cases of Omicron variant of the coronavirus have been detected in Bangladesh, taking the total tally to 55 till Sunday, according to GISAID, the global database for genomic data on the coronavirus.
These Omicron cases were detected at the virology laboratory of International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, (icddr,b). The organisation shared the report with GISAID on Sunday.
On December 11, Bangladesh reported its first two cases of the Omicron variant in two members of the Bangladesh women cricket team.
