Daily covid cases see rise for third consecutive day
Highest 34 deaths recorded in a day in 3 months, infection rate 13.26%
Bangladesh on Thursday again saw a spike in daily Covid-19 cases as the country detected 3,587 infections in 24 hours, which is 20 more than yesterday's figure.
Meanwhile, 34 people succumbed to the disease during the same period. This is the highest number of death recorded in a day since 20 December last year when 38 people lost their lives in a day.
The total cases in the country now stand at 584,395 and the death tally is 8,797.
The daily infection rate for Thursday is 13.26% which is higher than the recorded rate for Wednesday. Bangladesh saw a 12.97% infection rate among the tested population yesterday.
Across 219 labs, 27,045 samples were tested during the same period. So far, Bangladesh has tested 4,514,731 people since March 2020.
Bangladesh saw its highest infection rate of 31.91% on 3 August last year. At least 1,356 new cases were reported after testing 4,249 samples on that day.
The number of tests and new case detections started to decline in the first week of July last year and the fall continued till the first week of March this year.
However, Covid-19 infections and deaths rose steeply in the country from 10 March and eventually jumped to the second highest single-day cases again today.
A press release of the Directorate General of Health Services also reported that some 1,985 patients were declared free of the virus in the last 24 hours, raising the total number of recoveries to 529,894 with a 90.67% recovery rate.
So far 6,650 men fell victim to the viral disease in the country while the number is 2,147 in the case of women.
Among the latest day's victims, 25 were men and nine were women. Of them, 33 patients died in different hospitals across the country while one at home.
Moreover, 27 of them hailed from Dhaka, three from Chattogram, and one each from Khulna, Barishal, Rangpur and Mymensingh divisions.
Earlier on Thursday, Education Minister Dr Dipu Moni announced that instead of reopening on March 30, all schools and colleges across the country will begin academic activities after Eid due to a steep rise in Covid-19 cases.
The government in the meantime is likely to stop administering the first dose of coronavirus vaccine in the country as India temporarily suspended all exports of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine Thursday.
Neighbouring country India, today, reported highest Covid-19 cases of 53,476 in 5 months. The nation's infection tally has soared past 11.78 million. The fatality count, which has been rising over the last few weeks, has gone up to 160,692.
Meanwhile, India on 24 March, detected a new "double mutant variant" of the novel coronavirus, the health ministry said on Wednesday. Genome sequencing and analysis of samples from Maharashtra state found mutations in the virus that do not match previously catalogued "variants of concern", the ministry said in a statement.
The dreaded Covid-19 has claimed the lives of 27.58 lakh people globally and nearly 125,537,800 people have been recorded as having contracted it to date.