Daily infection rate below 5% for 2 days in a row

More than nine months later, the daily Covid-19 infection rate in the country was less than 5% for two consecutive days – on Sunday and Saturday.  

On Sunday, 569 people tested positive for Covid-19 and infection rate was 4.23%. On Saturday, 578 cases were detected and infection rate was 4.73%.

In the last 24 hours ending at 8am on Sunday, 23 people died from Covid-19.

Professor Nazrul Islam, a noted virologist and former vice-chancellor of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, told The Business Standard Covid-19 would become endemic in the country if infection rate stood at 5% for three consecutive weeks.

Bangladesh is in the 10th month of Covid-19 outbreak with 527,632 confirmed cases and 7,906 deaths so far, according to the Directorate General of Health Services.

The first Covid-19 cases in the country were reported on 8 March last year while the first death was reported on 18 March. 

In the last 24 hours, 681 patients were declared free of Covid-19, taking the total number of recoveries to 472,437.

The total recovery rate in the country now stands at 89.54%.

Among Sunday's victims, 16 were men and seven were women. They all died while undergoing treatment in different hospitals across the country.

Of them, 16 hailed from Dhaka division, two from Mymensingh, and one each from Chattogram, Khulna, Rajshahi, Sylhet and Rangpur divisions.

A total of 13,446 samples were tested in 199 labs across the country in the last 24 hours. So far, 3,457,453 samples have been tested in the country.