Covid: Daily infection rate ticks up slightly

Bangladesh on Friday registered 81 fresh Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours while the daily infection rate slid up to 1.09 per cent.

The country recorded no deaths over the same period, keeping the tally at 29,122. On Thursday, the positivity rate stood at 0.78 per cent.

With the fresh infections, the total caseload reached 19,51,658, according to the daily virus update by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) released on Friday afternoon.

Health authorities reported the latest figures after testing 7,413 samples at 879 laboratories across the country. Bangladesh has so far tested 1,38,31,420 samples.

Meanwhile, 893 patients recovered from the deadly infection in the last 24 hours, raising the overall recovery to 18,82,197. Bangladesh reported its first cases on March 8, 2020, and the first coronavirus-related death on March 18 of the same year.

The daily case positivity rate reached its peak at 33.37 per cent on January 28 this year.

The overall number of Covid cases has now surpassed 488 million amid a rise in new infections in parts of the world, reported UNB.

According to Johns Hopkins University (JHU), the total case count mounted to 48,81,63,510 while the death toll from the virus reached 61,42,579 on Friday morning.