Bangladesh reports highest-ever 78 Covid deaths
The daily infection count on Sunday remained lower than that of the last week, with 5,819 fresh cases recorded in 24 hours
Bangladesh saw another record figure of deaths from Covid-19 in the last 24 hours till Sunday 8am with 78 people dying from the infection.
With the new fatalities, the Covid-19 death toll reached 9,739 in the country with a fatality rate of 1.42%.
Meanwhile, the daily infection count on Sunday remained lower than every single-day count of last week, with 5,819 fresh cases recorded in 24 hours. Since 4 April, the number of daily new cases crossed the 7,000-mark on four consecutive days.
The Covid-19 caseload now stands at 6,84,756 with an infection rate of 19.81%.
Noted medicine specialist Dr ABM Abdullah told The Business Standard, "The number of patients infected with novel coronavirus is increasing every day. The deaths increased due to the hike in infections. Hospitals are already overcrowded. The coronavirus situation cannot be handled by increasing hospital beds. For this we have to prevent the disease and make arrangements so that people do not get infected."
"The bottom line is that there is no alternative to maintaining hygiene rules. Wearing a mask, washing hands, maintaining physical distance must be strictly ensured," said Dr ABM Abdullah, who is Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's personal physician.
He also suggested recommissioning the hospitals that were earlier dedicated for Covid-19 treatment, but later decommissioned as the number of patients declined.
Among the latest day's victims, 53 were men and 25 were women. Of the victims, 77 died in different hospitals across the country while one at home.
Moreover, 47 of them hailed from Dhaka, 20 from Chattogram, four each from Rajshahi and Khulna, two from Sylhet and one from Rangpur division.
Meanwhile, 4,212 patients were declared free of Covid-19 during the last 24 hours, raising the total number of recoveries to 576,590 with an 84.20% recovery rate.
Besides, 29,376 samples were tested in the last 24 hours in 248 labs across the country.
The Covid-19 victims' gender breakdown shows that 7,279 of the total deceased were men and 2,460 were women.
The country's maiden cases were reported on 8 March last year and the first death from the virus was reported on 18 March that year.