Bangladesh reports 2 Covid deaths, lowest in 1.5 years

Bangladesh recorded two deaths from Covid-19, all from the Dhaka division, in the last 24 hours till 8am Monday.

The single-day death toll reported on Monday is the lowest since 5 May last year.

Meanwhile, 214 more people tested positive for the virus during the same period, with the positivity rate declining to a record low at 1.08% infections from testing 19,734 samples across the country.

Earlier on 30 March last year, the positivity rate was 0.65% in the country.

Dr M Mushtaq Hussain, adviser, Institute of Epidemiology Disease Control and Research (IEDCR), told The Business Standard as the country's most of the population have already been infected with the virus, so now the passivity rate is down. The Covid cases have increased in many countries even after infections there dropped to zero. So there is no alternative to be careful. 

"Moreover, we have yet to bring most of our population under vaccination.  Taking advantage of the improved Covid situation, we need to vaccinate more people, especially the elderly persons.  With this, the death rate from the virus can be reduced even if the infection increases in the coming days," he also said.

With the latest additions, the death toll reached 27,870 and the case tally climbed to 1,569,753 in the country.

Also, 202 patients were declared free of Covid-19 during the last 24 hours, with a 97.70% recovery rate.

The Covid-19 victims' gender breakdown shows that 17,842 of the total deceased across the country were men and 10,028 were women.

The country's maiden cases were reported on 8 March last year and the first death from the virus was reported on 18 March.