Highest ever 153 daily Covid deaths
Death toll crosses the 15,000-mark
Bangladesh has reported its highest daily deaths from coronavirus since the pandemic hit the country more than 15 months ago.
The health authorities on Sunday said 153 more people died from the virus in a span of 24 hours, taking the death toll to 15,065.
This is for the eighth consecutive day that the country recorded over 100 deaths from the virus, and the Khulna division for the ninth consecutive day witnessed the highest number of deaths, as 51 more people died there.
The daily infection number again surpassed the threshold of 8,000 with 8,661 new cases getting recorded in the last 24 hours. After registering over 8,000 cases since 28 June, the figures dropped to 6,214 the previous day.
"These deaths are not the effect of those who were identified today, but of those who were infected three weeks ago," Dr Mushtuq Husain, adviser to the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR), told The Business Standard.
"We are heading towards the peak point of the infection. The infection will continue to increase. The positivity rate can go up by 30%-32%. Then death will increase more. We hope that after the next two weeks, the number of detections and then deaths will start to decrease. People need to be aware now and try to stay at home even if it is difficult."
The positivity rate also increased to 28.99%, up from 27.39% a day ago. The death rate remained unchanged at 1.59% for the last several days, according to the Covid-19 bulletin issued by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
The capital also witnessed a sharp rise in the daily death toll as 46 more people succumbed to the virus in the Dhaka division in the last 24 hours.
Among them, 15 each died in Chattogram and Rangpur divisions, 12 in Rajshahi, nine in Mymensingh, three in Barishal, and two in the Sylhet division.
Delta variant is more among current infections: IEDCR
Since the detection of the Delta variant in Bangladesh last April, the infection rate of the variant has been increasing.
In Bangladesh, this variant was found in 45% of samples in May and 78% in June, as per a report published by the IEDCR on Sunday.
According to the government organisation, there is a clear predominance of the Delta variant in the current Covid-19 infections in the country.
The IEDCR said the alpha variant has been found in all samples sequenced in Bangladesh from December 2020 to February this year.
Of the total samples sequenced in March, 82% were beta variants and 17% were alpha variants. Beta variants were also predominant among Covid-19 infected people in Bangladesh in April.
From December 2020 to June 2021, IEDCR has sequenced the genomes of 646 Covid-19 samples.
The IEDCR said the only way to prevent and control any type of variant is to follow proper hygiene rules along with taking shots as soon as the vaccine is available.