30 more die of Covid; daily cases drop below 10k

Bangladesh reported 9,052 Covid-19 cases while the virus claimed 30 lives in the last 24 hours till 8am on Friday.

The country's positivity rate dropped to 22.95%, down from 25.86% in the previous day, as 39,445 samples were tested during the same period, the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) said in its routine daily statement.

According to the DGHS data, after 12 consecutive days, the number of daily Covid patients has come down from the 10,000 mark. Earlier, more than 10,000 patients were being identified every 24 hours from 23 January to 3 February this year.

Adviser to the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) Mushtaq Hussain said, "Now, the country's Covid situation is not very fatal and we are expecting that the number of positive patients will decrease in the next week."

However, he suggested practicing caution and stressed the importance of mass vaccination against the novel coronavirus since the new variant is dominating everywhere in the country.   

The government statistics show, on Thursday, Covid killed 33 people and infected 11,596 in the country. In the past 24 hours, Dhaka counted the highest number of Covid cases and deaths with 4,720 infections and 17 fatalities among the eight divisions. Chattogram logged 1,520 cases and five deaths. Among others, three in Sylhet, two each in Rajshahi and Khulna, and one died in Barishal. Of the 30 deceased, 19 were male and 11 were female.

With the latest additions, the death toll reached 28,524 and the case tally climbed to 18,44,828 in Bangladesh. Since the beginning of the pandemic, 86.04% of Covid-19 patients recovered among the infected people while 1.55% died, the DGHS statistics showed.

Earlier, the country reported as many as 16,033 daily cases on 25 January driven by a new surge in infections at the beginning of the new year. It also recorded the highest percentage of positivity rate, at 33.37%, the same month.

Bangladesh reported its first Covid case on 8 March 2020 and the maiden death on 18 March the same year.

'Covid fatalities worldwide exceed 12,500 in the past day'

More than 12,500 coronavirus-related deaths were registered worldwide in the past 24 hours, making Thursday the deadliest day since July 2021, the World Health Organisation said.

On February 3, as many as 383,509,779 novel coronavirus cases and 5,690,824 coronavirus-associated deaths were registered across the globe.

The number of confirmed cases grew by 3,015,863 over the past day and the number of fatalities increased by 12,513. It was the highest daily fatality figure registered since July 21, 2021, when the novel coronavirus infection claimed the lives of 20,111 people all over the world.

The WHO statistics are based on officially confirmed data from the countries. The threshold of 350 million cases was crossed on 25 January, of 300 million – on 8 January, of 250 million - on 9 November, of 200 million - on 5 August.

The highest number of coronavirus cases was reported from the United States (74,787,329), followed by India (41,803,318), Brazil (25,620,209), France (19,322,157), and the United Kingdom (17,515,203).

The highest number of fatalities was reported from the United States (884,477), followed by Brazil (628,067), India (498,983), Russia (333,357), and Mexico (306,920).