Covid claims 6 lives, lowest in 7 months, infection rate drops to 1.88%

Covid-19 claimed six more lives and infected 293 people in the last 24 hours till Saturday morning in Bangladesh, showing a downward trend in both death and infection of the virus compared to that of the previous days.

The daily positivity rate of the virus stood at 1.88 percent during the period down from Friday’s 2.09 percent, Thursday’s 2.16 percent and Wednesday’s 2.34 percent.

Bangladesh last witnessed six deaths and 1,051 cases with 5.82 percent positivity rate on March 11, and seven deaths on October 8, the lowest since March 17 this year when the country recorded 11 such deaths.

Earlier on Friday, the Covid-19 claimed nine more lives and infected 396 people while on Thursday, witnessed seven deaths and 466 cases of the virus.

However, the mortality rate remained static at 1.77 percent.

With the fresh numbers, the Covid-19 fatalities reached 27,752 in the country while the caseload rose to 15,65,174, said the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) in a handout this afternoon.

The fresh cases were detected after testing 15,580 samples at 829 government authorised laboratories in the country in the 24 hours.

Some 442 people were declared free from the infection at the same time, taking the total number of the recovery to 15,27, 333 and with this, the recovery rate stood at 97.58 up from Friday’s 97.56 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.

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

Of the victims, four were male and two were female and the deceased were aged between 51 and 80 years, according to the DGHS daily chart.

All the victims breathed their last while undergoing treatment at different public hospitals in the 24 hours.

Meanwhile, Worldometer, a reference website that provides counters and real-time statistics for diverse topics, has recorded 49, 06, 599 deaths so far caused by the virus and 24, 09, 36, 141 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.