Coronavirus death, infection rate continue to rise

The rate of coronavirus infection and death has been on an upward trajectory, with 39 deaths and 3,674 infections recorded in the country on Saturday.

The country witnessed the highest number of daily deaths yesterday in the past 101 days.

The latest day's infection rate stands 14.90%, which is the highest in last three months. Earlier, on 7 December the daily infection rate was 15.30%.

In the meantime, 3,674 people tested positive for Covid-19.

In the last five consecutive days, the number of new cases was more than 3,500.

Dr M Mushtuq Husain, consultant of the Covid-19 Pandemic Control at the Institute of Epidemiology Disease Control and Research, said there is a fear that the infection curve may jump this time, and it will be catastrophic if the government does not act promptly to control the situation.

People should now be forced to wear masks and ensure social distancing to tackle the infection rate, he suggested, adding that more people needed to be vaccinated quickly to reduce the mortality.

The number of novel coronavirus cases in the country now stands at 591,806.

The country's death toll from the virus now stands at 8,869, according to a press release issued by the Directorate General of Health Services. The death rate stands at 1.50%.

In the last three consecutive days, the country conducted more than 27,000 Covid tests. 24,664 samples were tested in 224 labs across the country in the past 24 hours.

On average, 2,000 tests have been done every day. Among the latest day's victims, 24 were men and 15 women. All patients died in different hospitals across the country.

Moreover, 28 of the victims hailed from Dhaka, five from Chattogram, two each from Rajshahi and Khulna, one each from Sylhet and Rangpur divisions.

In the meantime, 1,971 patients were declared free of Covid-19 during the same period, raising the total number of recoveries to 5,33,922, with a 90.22% recovery rate.