Covid-19: 17 deaths, 518 new cases recorded in 24hrs

Covid-19 claimed 17 more lives in Bangladesh and infected 518 others in the last 24 hours till Wednesday morning. The positivity rate of the virus now stood at 2.34 percent during the period.

With the fresh numbers, the Covid-19 fatalities reached 27,730 in Bangladesh while the caseload mounted to 15,64,019, the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) said in a handout this afternoon.

The fresh cases were detected after testing 22,153 samples at 828 government authorised laboratories in the country in the 24 hours.

With this, the daily-case positivity rate stood at 2.34 percent down from Tuesday’s 2.35 percent and Monday’s 2.58 percent. However, the mortality rate remained static at 1.77 percent, said the DGHS.

Some 505 people were declared free the infection at the same time taking the total number of the recovery to 15,25,673 and with this the recovery rate stood at 97.54 percent.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), if the daily-case positivity rate remains at 5 per cent or below for 14 days it is considered to be safe for mass unlocking.

The country last witnessed the upswing in fatalities reaching its peak on August 5 and 10 when 264 deaths were recorded.

Between May and June this year, there was a 273 percent rise in monthly caseloads and 162 percent in fatalities.

Among the new victims, 13 people died in Dhaka, two in Khulna, one each in Chattograme and Barishal divisions while no case was of casualty reported each Rajshahi, Sylhet Rangpur and Mymensingh divisions during the period.

Of the victims, eight were male and nine were female and the deceased were aged between 41 and 90 years while the majority of them were between 41 and 70 years, according to the DGHS daily chart.

Among them, 16 breathed their last while undergoing treatment at different public hospitals and one died at a private hospital in the 24 hours.

Meanwhile, Worldometer, a reference website that provides counters and real-time statistics for diverse topics, has recorded 48, 83, 606 deaths so far caused by the virus and 23, 95, 62, 866 cases worldwide.

Since the outbreak of the virus in China in 2019, the health authority in Bangladesh confirmed the first case on March 8, 2020 and recorded the first death on March 18 in the same year.