Covid-19 cases continue to rise in Bangladesh

Bangladesh health authorities recorded 2,241 new cases of coronavirus and no related death in the last 24 hours till Wednesday morning, according to the health department.

With the updated official data, the caseload of the virus reached 19,71,602 while the death toll remain static at 29,145, said the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) in a handout this afternoon.

The daily positivity and recovery rate dropped to 15.23 percent from Tuesday’s 15.47 percent and 96.73 percent from yesterday’s 96.84 percent respectively while the fatality rate remained unchanged at 1.48 percent during the period.

The new cases were detected after testing 14,712 samples at eight government-authorised laboratories in the country during the 24 hours period.

Meanwhile, some 152 people recovered from the infection, taking the total number of recoveries to 19,07,219.

The health workers found 1,968 people positive in the Dhaka division, 145 in Chattogram, 31 in Rajshahi, 37 in Khulna, 24 in Barishal, 25 in Mymensingh, nine in Sylhet and two in Rangpur divisions 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 in 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, 54, 223 deaths so far caused by the virus and, 55, 08, 90, 437 cases worldwide.