Covid-19 death toll crosses 800-mark in Bangladesh
More than 36 percent of the total infections occurred in the six days after general holidays ended
Bangladesh on Friday passed its 90th day of the Covid-19 outbreak with 60,391 confirmed cases and 811 deaths.
The Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) confirmed the detection of 2,828 more coronavirus cases and 30 deaths between 8am Thursday and 8am Friday.
The government had previously decided not to extend the general holidays after May 30.
In the six days after that, 22,002 people got infected and 201 died, accounting for 36.43 percent of total infections and 24.74 percent of total deaths.
Since the beginning of June, the number of new cases detected every day has hovered at over 2,000, while the death toll has been 30 or more for four consecutive days.
The country saw its biggest single-day infection on June 2 when 2,991 cases were confirmed.
The health authorities reported the first Covid-19 case on March 8 and the first death on March 18.
Experts believe the move to end the nationwide general holidays and allow offices and businesses to resume operations on a limited scale could cause a spike in new cases.
"The infection rate will increase after June 9 as many people went home during Eid," said Dr Nazrul Islam, a virologist and former vice-chancellor of the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University.
"Next, the effect of ending general holidays will become visible after June 15. There will be more infections then," he added.
Dr Nazrul said that as more people are getting infected, rapid testing has to be started now and it has to be conducted at district and upazila levels too.
"There is a need to conduct polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests as well. Also, the rapidly infected areas should be divided into different zones and strict shutdown should be ensured in the red zones," he further said.
DGHS Additional Director General (Administration) Dr Nasima Sultana revealed the latest Covid-19 figures on Friday in a daily online briefing.
"In the past 24 hours, 14,645 samples were collected. Of those, 14,088 were tested in 50 labs across the country. The infection rate was recorded at 20.07 percent," she said.
Of the 23 men and seven women who died during the period, 11 patients were from Dhaka division, 12 from Chattogram, three from Sylhet, two from Rajshahi, and one each from Barishal and Rangpur divisions.
"Of them, 17 died in hospitals and 13 died at home. Till now, 372,365 tests have been conducted across the country," said Dr Nasima.
She highlighted that about 39 percent of those who have died from the disease so far were over 60 years of age.
In the briefing, Dr Nasima also said that 643 more Covid-19 patients recovered from the infection between Thursday and Friday morning.
"So far 12,804 people, which is 21.20 percent of all the infected patients, have made full recoveries," she said, adding that the death toll accounted for 1.34 percent of total infections in the country.