Covid-19 death rate rising

Highlights:

•    Total infected: 3,06,794 or 20.26%
•    Total death: 4,174 or 1.36%
•    Total recovery: 196,836 or 64.16%
•    Total sample test: 1,514,126
•    Isolated: 20,084
•    In Quarantine: 52,287

Bangladesh has confirmed 47 more deaths from the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) in the last 24 hours until Friday 8am.

With this, the death toll now stands at 4,174 and the death rate stands at 1.36 percent, according to a press release from the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) on Friday.

From August 1 to August 18, the Covid-19 death rate hovered between 3.21 to 3.32 percent. After three days, August 19-21, the death rate was 3.33 percent. 

Between August 22 and 25, the rate came down to 1.34 percent. However, it increased more on August 26 and 27, and the death rate stood at 1.35 percent. 

At a programme on Wednesday, Professor Nasima Sultana, additional director general (administration) of the DGHS, said the infection rate is on the decline but death rate is not.

"The number of deaths could have been reduced had the patients come to hospital in time," she said.

In the last 24 hours, 2,211 people tested positive for Covid-19 and the infection rate stood at 16.09 percent.

With the new cases, the country now has 306,794 Covid-19 cases at an infection rate of 20.26 percent, according to the DGHS.

A total of 3,378 patients have recovered from the novel coronavirus in the past 24 hours and the total number of recoveries reached 196,836 while the recovery rate is 64.16 percent.

Some 13,977 samples were collected in the last 24 hours and 13,741 were tested in 92 labs across the country. The number of samples tested so far is 1,514,126.

Of the deceased individuals, 32 were men and 15 were women. Moreover: 29 of them hailed from Dhaka, three from Chattogram, seven from Khulna, two from Rajshahi, one each from Barisal and Sylhet, and four from Rangpur division.

Among the deceased, 44 of them died in hospital and three at their respective residences.

The gender breakdown of Covid-19 victims shows that 3,374, or 78.88 percent, were men, and 900, or 21.56 percent, were women.

Bangladesh first confirmed its cases of Covid-19 on March 8; by March 18 it had confirmed its first death from the virus.