Bangladesh sees highest Covid-19 deaths in 7 weeks

Bangladesh recorded its highest single-day coronavirus-related deaths in nearly two months with the number of new cases still hovering above the 3,000-mark.

The daily infection rate fell to 18.02 per cent.

Sixty-seven deaths and 3,057 cases were recorded in a 24-hour period until 8:00am Saturday, the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) said in a press release.

It was the highest single-day fatality recorded since May 3. The mortality rate remains at 1.59 per cent.

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 13,466 deaths and confirmed 8,48,027 cases.

Until Saturday, 7,80,146 patients (92 per cent) recovered.

The total number of tests carried out since before the cases were announced is 63,05,503, including 16,964 in the last 24 hours. The overall infection rate is currently 13.45 per cent.

Among the latest victims, 24 died in Khulna division, 14 in Dhaka, 11 in Chattogram, eight each in Rajshahi and Rangpur, and one each in Sylhet and Mymensingh.

The majority of the victims (9,657) are men and the rest (3,809) are women.

Meanwhile, the global coronavirus-related deaths crossed four million on Friday morning, according to a Reuters tally. It took over a year for the Covid-19 death toll to hit two million, while the next two million were recorded in just 166 days, according to a Reuters analysis.

Movement curb

The government imposed restrictions on the people’s movement on April 5 to curb coronavirus infections. The restrictions 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 it in phases until June 30.

The worsening situation in Bangladesh threatens to roll back the government’s initial success in tackling the virus’ spread.

Vaccination drive

Bangladesh on Saturday resumed the second phase of mass vaccination by administering the Sinopharm doses.

People who have already registered are getting the jabs.

Bangladesh received over 1,00,000 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on May 31 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, 42,64,362 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.