Lowest infection rate in 8 months

Highlights:
         •    Total infected: 518,898
         •    Total death: 7,687
         •    Total recovery: 463,480
         •    Total sample test: 3,302,429

Bangladesh yesterday reported the lowest daily infection rate -- 6.29% -- in more than eight months, with 978 people tested positive for Covid-19.

Earlier, on 11 April the daily infection rate was 6.08%.

In 24 hours until 8:00am on Wednesday, 17 more people died of the disease.

Prof Nazrul Islam, noted virologist and former vice-chancellor of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, told The Business Standard that if the infection rate goes down further to 5% and remains so for three consecutive weeks, the disease will turn into an endemic.

Bangladesh has passed 305 days of the Covid-19 outbreak with 5,18898 confirmed cases and 7,687 deaths so far, according to the Directorate General of Health Services.

The country's first Covid-19 cases were reported on 8 March last year and the first death from the infection 10 days later.

Bangladesh's Covid-19 infection rate hovered between 20% and 25% from June to August last year. The highest daily infection rate in the country was reported at 31.91% on August 3.

The infection rate came down to below 20% in the middle of the same month. In December, the daily infection rate was between 8 and 12%.

A total of 1,021 patients were declared free of Covid-19 in the latest daily count, raising the number of recoveries to 4,63480. The overall recovery rate was 89.32%.

Of those who died, 15 were men and 2 women. All of them died in hospitals across the country.

Nine of them hailed from Dhaka, two each from Chattogram, Rajshahi, and Rangpur, and one each from Khulna and Mymensingh.