Bangladesh reports highest-ever Covid positivity rate at 33.37%
The previous highest positivity rate 32.55% was recorded on 24 July last year
The Covid-19 positivity rate in Bangladesh has continued to be above 30% since 23 January and reached the highest-ever 33.37% on Friday.
The health authorities recorded 15,440 new infections after testing 46,268 samples across the country on Friday.
The latest figure took the country's case tally to 17,62,771, according to the data provided by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
The previous highest positivity rate was recorded at 32.55% on 24 July last year.
On Friday, the death toll rose to 20, of whom eight were male and 12 were females. Of the deceased, one was under 10 years old, two were between 11 and 20, one between 21 and 30, two between 41-50 and 14 were above 60 years old.
On Thursday, the positivity rate was 31.98%, the number of infections was 15,807 and 15 people died.
Among the eight divisions, Dhaka recorded the highest number of cases with 9,226 infections.
Chattogram division outnumbered Dhaka in terms of daily casualties as nine people died in the southern division and five in the capital.
Besides, two each died in Rajshahi and Sylhet division and one each in Barishal and Mymensingh division.
As many as 1,326 people recovered from the illness nationwide, bringing the total number of recoveries to 1,562,369 at a rate of 88.63%.
Globally, over 366.58 million people have been infected by the novel coronavirus and 5.63 million have died, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.
Bangladesh reported its first Covid case on 8 March 2020 and the maiden death on 18 March the same year.