Covid-19: Bangladesh records 50 deaths, 3,319 new cases

Amid the desperate bid to stem the spread of the virus, Bangladesh reported 50 more coronavirus related deaths and 3,319 new cases in last 24 hours until Tuesday morning.

The positivity rate of the virus declined to 14.24 percent from Mondays 14.80 percent, according to a handout of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).

The country last recorded 56 deaths on May 9 and 3031 cases on April 27.

With the new numbers, the death toll of the virus rose to 13,222 while the caseload stood at 8,33,291, the DGHS said in the handout this afternoon.

number of infections and deaths is on the rise in different frontier districts amid fear expressed by experts that these districts will face a serious healthcare crisis as their hospitals are not equipped enough to face any worsening situation.

Some 23,265 samples were tested at 512 government authorised laboratories in the country at the same time and of them 3,319 were found positive for the virus, the DGHS said.

Besides, a total of 2,243 patients were declared free from the virus, taking the number of recovery to 7,71,073 with 92.53 percent recovery rate.

the deceased, 30 were male and 20 were female and 45 died at public hospitals, three at private hospitals and one at house and one brought dead to a hospital.

highest 15 people died in each in Rajshahi and Khulna divisions in the same period.

Apart from, the deadly virus claimed six lives each in Dhaka and Chattogram, three each in Sylhet and Mymensingh and one each in Rangpur and Barishal divisions.

Meanwhile, Worldometer, a reference website that provides counters and real-time statistics for diverse topics, has recorded 38, 29, 041 deaths so far caused by the virus and 17, 70, 86, 331 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 caused by the virus on March 18 in the same year.

Vaccination drive

Bangladesh launched its vaccination drive on February 7 with Oxford-AstraZeneca doses purchased from India’s Serum Institute.

The administration of the first dose remained suspended since April 26.

The country, the prime recipient of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines, has also suspended the registration for Covid-19 jabs due to vaccine shortage amid a delay in the arrival of shipments from India.

However, the administering of the 1st dose of Chinese Sinopharm vaccine against Covid-19 began in Bangladesh on May 25.

So far, four vaccines – Oxford-AstraZeneca (Covishield), Sputnik-V, Sinopharm and Pfizer-BioNTech – have got emergency use authorisation in the country.

Vaccine procurement update

Bangladesh will soon receive 10 lakh and 800 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine soon under COVAX facility, said Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen on Friday.

Bangladesh, earlier sought 2 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine doses from the US for addressing Bangladesh's immediate needs but the US is yet to reply on that particular request.

China already delivered the second consignment of vaccine doses for Bangladesh as a gift of its government on Sunday.

Just nine days after the arrival of the first batch of 500,000 doses of gifted vaccine in Bangladesh, China announced the provision of the second batch of gift doses to Bangladesh.

Meanwhile, seven million doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca Covishield reached Bangladesh and India.