Covid positivity rate crosses 14%, one dies in 24hrs

Bangladesh is on the verge of the fourth wave, as the health authorities registered 1,319 new cases of coronavirus with one related death in the last 24 hours till Thursday morning, according to the health department.

Bangladesh saw the fourth Covid-linked death in the current month, according to the updated data.

The daily case positivity rate rose to 14.32 percent up from yesterday’s 13.30 percent, said the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) in a hand out this afternoon.

The death toll from the virus reached to 29, 135 while the caseload to 19, 60, 528 as of Thursday, said the DGHS.

The mortality rate remained unchanged at 1.49 percent while the recovery rate declined to 97.23 percent which was 97.29 percent a day ago, said the handout.

The new cases were detected after testing 9,214 samples at 880 government authorised laboratories in the country during the period.

Meanwhile, some 127 people recovered from the infection, taking the total number of recovery to 19,06,232.

The lone female victim aged between 61 and 70 years breathed his last while undergoing treatment at a private hospital in Dhaka during the period.

Of the new cases, 1,210 people found positive of the virus in Dhaka division, 69 in Chattogram, 16 in Rajshahi, nine in Barishal, seven in Mymensingh, six in Khulna and two in Rangpur divisions.

In May, the country reported only four Covid-linked deaths and 816 new cases, while 7,356 patients recovered from the disease.

The country reported its first zero Covid-related death in a single day on November 20 last year, along with 178 infections.

On January 28, Bangladesh registered its previous highest daily positivity rate at 33.37 percent reporting 15,440 cases and 20 deaths.

The country registered the highest daily caseload of 16,230 on July 28 last year, while the highest number of daily fatalities was 264 on August 10 last year.

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

Worldometer, a reference website that provides counters and real-time statistics for diverse topics, has so far recorded 63, 46, 057 deaths so far caused by the virus and, 54, 67, 25, 764 cases worldwide.