Amid a gradual worsening situation, Bangladesh on Monday recorded 8,364 new coronavirus cases, its highest-ever single day figure, a day after seeing the most Covid-related deaths in a 24-hour period.
Earlier on April 7 this year, the health authorities reported highest 7,626 cases since the pandemic broke out in the country in March last year.
The daily infection rate, showing a double-digit trend for the consecutive 25 days, also soared to 23.86 per cent, which is the highest since August 5 last year.
The jump of the infection numbers and rate comes at a time when the government-announced partial restrictions on people’s movement came into effect on Monday morning to cut the chain of virus transmission.
Besides, complete nationwide restrictions will be enforced from Thursday.
In a 24-hour period until 8:00am on Monday, the country saw 104 deaths from Covid-19 with the mortality rate remaining at 1.59 per cent, the Directorate General of Health Services said in a press release.
Bangladesh reported its first cases on March 8 last year and the first coronavirus-related death on March 18 that year. So far, the country has seen 14,276 deaths and confirmed 8,96,770 cases.
Until Monday, 8,07,673 patients (90.06 per cent) recovered.
The total number of tests carried out since the pandemic broke out in the country is 65,41,840, including the highest-ever 35,059 tests in the last 24 hours. The overall infection rate is gradually increasing and currently stands at 13.71 per cent.
Among the latest deaths, Khulna division saw the highest 35 deaths, followed by 27 in Dhaka and 19 in Chattogram.
Besides, nine died in Rangpur division, seven in Rajshahi, five in Mymensingh, and two in Barishal.
The majority of the victims (10,186) are men and the rest (4,090) are women.
Strict lockdown to be enforced by army, BGB, police
In light of the deteriorating situation, the government has decided to impose a weeklong hard lockdown, which will strictly be enforced from Thursday by members of Bangladesh Army, police, and Border Guard Bangladesh.
No movement passes will be issued during the lockdown, Cabinet Secretary Khandker Anwarul Islam said during a press briefing on Monday.
Meanwhile, a partial restriction is in place across the county since the morning.
Earlier on Friday, the government announced that a strict seven-day countrywide lockdown will be enforced from Monday to curb the virus’ spread. The decision was revised later on.
The decision came following the recommendation of National Technical Advisory Committee on Covid-19.
NTAC suggested enforcing a minimum of 14-day complete shutdown to stem the tide of infection.
Meanwhile, the government's announcement of the complete lockdown has triggered a mass exodus of homebound people from Dhaka.
On June 21, the government announced a nine-day lockdown in seven districts of Dhaka division.
Restrictions have been enforced in Narayanganj, Gazipur, Munshiganj, Manikganj, Rajbari, Madaripur, and Gopalganj from June 22 to 30.
The government had earlier imposed restrictions on movement on April 5 this year. They were extended until July 15 in phases.
Although the number of cases and deaths declined to some extent, the situation went downhill in recent weeks as people are still reluctant to follow basic health rules and continue to flout government-issued guidelines.
The Covid-19 situation in the bordering districts has deteriorated in recent days, prompting the local administration to enforce full-scale lockdown in some areas.
Bangladesh shut its border with India on April 26 as the neighbouring country’s coronavirus situation worsened. The closure was extended in phases until June 30.
Amid the spike in Covid cases triggered by local transmission of the Indian variant (Delta), experts predicted that Bangladesh might see the peak of the current wave of the deadly virus in the third week of July next.
Vaccination drive
Bangladesh on June 21 started administering Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine doses while it resumed the inoculation of Sinopharm doses on June 19.
People who have already registered are getting the jabs.
The country received 11,00,000 Sinopharm doses from China and over 1,00,000 doses of Pfizer under the Covax facility run by the WHO and Gavi, the vaccine alliance.
The countrywide vaccination drive was launched on February 7 with doses bought from Serum Institute of India Private Limited.
So far, 58,20,015 people have received the first dose of Covishield manufactured by SII since January 27. Of them, 42,85,934 have received the second shots so far, according to the health authorities.
A vaccine export halt by India had forced Bangladesh to keep administering the first dose suspended since April 26.
As many as 46,462 people received the first dose of Sinopharm vaccine and 431 others took the second shot until sunday.
Some 240 people have taken the Pfizer shots so far.
