Amid the fear of a fresh wave of Covid-19 and detection of UK variant of the virus, Bangladesh witnessed a sharp increase in the number of deaths and new cases on Monday.
The deadly virus claimed 26 more lives and infected 1,773 more in the last 24 hours till Monday morning.
With the latest figures, the Covid-19 fatalities climbed to 8,571 while the total infections to 559,168, according to a handout of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
The daily infection rate jumped to 9.48 percent from 7.15 percent on Sunday.
But the mortality rate remained static at 1.53 percent for last three days which was 1.54 percent in the past few weeks, the DGHS said in the handout.
The virus infection rate had come down to below 5% on January 19 last. It even had come down below 3 percent. However, the infection rate soared again on Tuesday last as it increased to 5.13%.
The infection rate was 5.98% on Wednesday while 5.82 percent on Thursday, 6.62% on Friday and 6.26% on Saturday.
Besides, 1,432 people recovered from the virus infections during the period. So far, 513,127 patients (91.77 percent) have recovered, according to the DGHS.
Bangladesh reported its first cases on March 8, 2020 and the first death on March 18 in the same year.
Authorities have so far tested 4,283,246 samples, including 18,695 in the past 24 hours.
Vaccination drive in Bangladesh
Bangladesh launched its nationwide Covid-19 vaccination drive on February 7.
By Sunday, 4,398,094 people received the first dose of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine. The second dose has to be taken between 8 and 12 weeks of the first one.
The government is providing the vaccine for free. It signed an agreement with India's Serum Institute for acquiring 30 million doses of the vaccine.
The institute will provide five million doses every month between January and June. Those who are 40 or above can register for getting the jab at www.surokkha.gov.bd as the on-spot registration system has been revoked.
Health Minister Zahid Maleque has said the age limit for getting the vaccine will be revised when more doses will be available in the country.
Global Covid-19 situation
The world is fast approaching the grim milestone of 120 million of Covid-19 cases despite high rates of vaccination.
According to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University (JHU), the global caseload reached 119,839,445 and the death toll climbed to 2,653,428 on Monday.
The US has so far recorded 29,437,706 cases and 534,880 fatalities. The country is approaching grim milestone of 30 million cases.
Brazil has reported a total of 11,483,370 Covid-19 cases, with 278,229 deaths, its health ministry said on Sunday.
It also reported a total of 43,812 new Covid-19 cases with 1,127 deaths in the past 24 hours, it said.
The new wave of the Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated over the past months, with surging deaths between the ages of 20 and 50.
Health authorities attributed the new wave of infections to the P.1 strain that emerged in Brazil's northern state of Amazonas in November last year, and the movement of people during the summer vacation.
India’s total caseload reached 11,359,048 while the death toll from the virus mounted to 158,607.
