76% of deceased in Covid-19 last week were not vaccinated

More than 76% of the deceased who died of Covid-19 last week did not take any vaccine, the Department of Health said after analysing the data of the period.

The department said 115 people died of the virus last week. Of them, four received one dose, four took two doses, 88 did not take any vaccine and no information was not found about 19.

Besides, 60.3% of them were suffering from diabetes, 54.4% from hypertension, 11.8% from heart disease and 5.9% from cancer.

According to the Department of Health, in the 40th epidemiological week (4-10 October), Covid-19 deaths dropped to 30.2% and new patient diagnoses were down to 33.5% compared to the previous week.

Noted Virologist and a Member of the National Technical Advisory Committee on Covid-19 Professor Nazrul Islam told The Business Standard that vaccines reduce the death rates even if they cannot prevent infections. Therefore, priority should be given to vaccinating the elderly and comorbid patients.

"At present, the number of infections has decreased. If more people can be vaccinated soon, even if the number of infections increases again, the deaths will decrease," he added.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh reported 11 more deaths from Covid-19 in the last 24 hours till 8am Monday. Besides, 599 more people were tested positive for the virus during the same period.

Health officials recorded a 2.58% positivity rate after testing 23,193 samples across the country. With the latest additions, the death toll reached 27,699 and the case tally climbed to 15,62,958 in the country.