Lowest single-day infection rate in 3.5 months

Highlights:

• Total infected: 319,686 or 20.08%
• Total death: 4,383 or 1.37%
• Total recovery: 213,980 or 66.93%
• Total sample test: 1,592,038
• Isolated: 19,869
• In Quarantine: 52,183

The country on Thursday recorded the lowest Covid-19 infection rate -- 14.96% -- in three and a half months. In the last 24-hour until 8:00am Thursday, 2,158 were reported positive with coronavirus while a total 14,422 samples were tested.

Previously on May 19, the country witnessed a lower infection rate – 14.81%-- than the latest. However, the overall infection rate in the country till date is 20.08 percent while the total cases now stand at 3,19,686.

Besides, 32 more people died of Covid-19, bringing the total death toll to 4,383, according to a press release issued by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).

One-fourth of the deceased were women, which shows that males are more susceptible to the disease than females. Meantime, DGHS data shows that nearly 50 percent of the deceased were above the age of 60.  

Of the dead in the last 24 hours, 15 hailed from Dhaka, seven from Chattogram, three from Sylhet, six from Rangpur and one from Mymensingh district. Thirty-one people died in different hospitals while one died at home.

In the past 24 hours, 2,964 patients were declared free of the coronavirus raising the tally of the recovered to 213,980. With that, the recovery rate reached at 66.93% while the death rate was 1.37%.

The health directorate said, "Currently 52,183 people are in quarantine across the country, including 2,046 newly quarantined individuals. Besides, the authorities placed 698 new individuals suspected of having Covid-19 into self-isolation."

Public health experts observed that though the infection rate is in decline, it does not paint the real picture of virus transmission in the country, mainly because people with symptoms are no longer willing to give samples for testing. The imposition of fees for tests at public hospitals and labs is one of the reasons.

The health directorate said 19,899,644 hotline health services have been given by trained and volunteer doctors via three designated numbers (16263, 333, and 10655) so far. Via the telemedicine service, 100 doctors and health officials are providing Covid-19 advice every day in two shifts.

There are 14,474 general beds available across the country for Covid-19 treatment while only 3,798 of them are occupied.

Moreover, there are 550 intensive care beds, and 234 of them are available for the treatment of Covid-19 patients.

The deadly virus has killed 867,347 people globally and infected 26,177,535 so far.