Covid infection rate crosses 15%, 3 die in 24hrs

Bangladesh is on the brink of the fourth wave, as the health authorities recorded three deaths from coronavirus and 1,280 related cases in the last 24 hours till Saturday morning, according to the health department.

The daily positivity rate increased to 15.07 percent, 2.89 percentage point up from yesterday’s 12.18 percent, said the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) in a handout this afternoon.

The mortality rate remained static at 1.48 percent while the number of fatalities rose to 29,138 in the last 24 hours period.

Besides, the recovery rate declined to 97.10 percent which was 97.16 percent a day ago, according to the handout.

The new cases were detected after testing 8,492 samples at 880 government authorised laboratories in the country, taking the caseload to 19,63,493.

Meanwhile, some 102 people recovered from the infection, taking the total number of recovery to 19,06,519 as of Saturday.

Of the new cases, 1,214 people found positive in Dhaka division, 50 in Chattogram, five each in Barishal and Mymensingh, four in Khuln and one each in Rajshahi and Sylhet divisions.

the deceased, one was fame and two were female and they are aged between 31 and 90 years. One of them, two breathed their last while undergoing treatment at public hospitals in Dhaka while another one at a private hospital in Barishal during the period.

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, 49, 696 deaths so far caused by the virus and, 54, 83, 10, 719 cases worldwide.