Covid-19 claims 200 more lives, infects 11,579 in 24hrs

Reeling from the devastating second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, Bangladesh on Tuesday saw 200 more deaths and 11,579 new cases of the virus, amid an eight-day break of the nationwide strict lockdown.

According to the latest official data, the death toll of the virus mounted to 18,325 while the caseload reached 11,28,889, Directorate General of Health Service (DGHS), said in a press statement on Tuesday afternoon.

The country's fatalities have been hovering at approximately 200 for the last two weeks.

Covid-19 infection rate in Bangladesh went up 99 percent, with more than 11,828 new cases reported each day. The highest daily average was reported on July 15.

The country saw the highest 231 deaths and 13,321 new cases of the coronavirus with 29.59 percent infection rate on July 19.

The fresh cases were detected after testing 39,510 samples at 639 government authorised laboratories in the country during same the period.

The daily positivity rate of the virus slightly declined to 29.31 percent from Monday’s 29.59 percent.

However, the fatality rate remained static at 1.62 percent for the at least three days.

A total of 9,997 patients were declared free from the infection, taking the total number of recovery to 9, 51,340 with 84.27 percent recovery rate.

Just like the last few days, Dhaka reported the highest deaths as 51 more people died with the fatal disease during this time, followed by 50 deaths in Khulna, 49 in Chattogram, 12 each Rajshahi and Rangpur, 11 in Sylhet, eight in Mymensingh and seven in Barishal divisions.

Of the deceased, 111 were male while 89 were female and the victims were aged between 11 and 100 years.

Of them, 164 died at public hospitals, 30 at private hospitals and six at houses in the same period.

Meanwhile, Worldometer, a reference website that provides counters and real-time statistics for diverse topics, has recorded 41, 15, 374 deaths so far caused by the virus and 19, 18, 25, 033 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.

Vaccination update

The government has so far approved the emergency use of Oxford-AstraZeneca, Sinopharm (China), Sputnik-V (Russia), Pfizer-BioNTech (USA/Germany), Crona Vac (China) and Janssen single-dose vaccines.

Amid the deteriorating coronavirus situation, the government resumed the countrywide mass registration on July 8 for receiving Covid-19 jabs, which remained suspended for around three months as vaccine procurement became unsure.

Bangladesh is currently administering the doses of Sinopharm vaccine and Pfizer BioNTech vaccine and also the second dose of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.

Earlier in the day, Dr ABM Khurshid Alam, director general of the DGHS, told the Business Insider Bangladesh that the vaccination centres will remain closed for four days because of Eid holiday to begin from July 20 to 22 in Bangladesh.

Apart from, July 23 is Friday and the day is considered as weekly holiday and thus the vaccine centre will also remain stopped on that day, he added.

The vaccination activities will again be resumed on Saturday though the next course of strict lockdown to begin from the same day across the country simultaneously.

Govt relaxes lockdown ahead of Eid

The government has relaxed the lockdown restrictions for eight days from July 15 on the occasion of the Eid-ul-Azha, the second largest religious festival of Muslims, to be celebrated on July 21.

The strict lockdown will again be imposed across the country from July 23 to contain the transmission of the deadly coronavirus, according to a government notification signed by Principal Information Officer Surath Kumar Sarker.

During the period, all will have to wear mask and maintain health guidelines, read the notification.

The Cabinet Division will issue a gazette notification in this regard on Wednesday, Surath Kumar Sarker said.

In the notification, the cabinet division said that the lockdown restrictions will be lifted from July 14 midnight to the morning of July 23.

However, strict restrictions will resume from July 23 and will continue till August 5, as per the order.