Lowest 684 test Covid positive in nearly 8 months
A total of 9,701 samples were tested in 180 labs across the country in the past 24 hours, of which 684 were found infected with coronavirus
The country recorded 684 new cases of coronavirus and 23 Covid deaths in the last 24 hours ending at 8am on Saturday.
The infection figure is the lowest in nearly 8 months. Earlier on 9 May, 636 people tested Covid-19 positive.
Experts said due to the low number of tests, Covid-19 daily cases have declined.
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A total of 9,701 samples were tested in 180 labs across the country in the past 24 hours.
Virologist Prof Nazrul Islam, also former vice-chancellor of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University told The Business Standard that the number of tests decreased a lot.
Only 9,000 samples were tested on Saturday and so the cases were less. The country needs to test some 20,000 samples every day, which have come down to less than 10,000.
Because of the less number of tests, a few Covid positive cases are being identified. Besides, the infection rate in the country is now low.
"The daily infection rate is now less than 10%. Coronavirus is not very much dominating in our country as other viruses do more in winter," he said, adding that if people do not follow the rules of hygiene, after winter, the infection rate may increase further.
Bangladesh has passed 301 days of the Covid-19 outbreak with 5,15,184 confirmed cases and 7,599 deaths so far, with 23 new deaths, according to the Directorate General of Health Services.
The country's first Covid-19 case was reported on 8 March this year while the first death from the virus on 18 March.
A single highest 4,019 cases have so far been detected on 2 July. The highest 64 patients died in a single day on 30 June.
Bangladesh's Covid-19 infection rate had been hovering between 20% and 25% from June to August. The highest daily infection rate in the country was reported at 31.91% on 3 August.
The infection rate came down to below 20% in August. In December, infection rate was hovering around 8%-12%. Now it has come down to 7%.
The latest day's infection rate was 7.05% out of the total tests though the overall positivity rate in the country was 15.85% till date.
The death rate in the country now stands at 1.48%.
A total of 964 patients were declared free of Covid-19 in the last 24 hours, raising the total number of recoveries to 4,59,620 with a recovery rate of 89.21%.
Among the latest day's victims, 17 were men and six women. All the victims died in different hospitals across the country while undergoing treatment.
