Covid-19: Daily cases in Bangladesh drop to 10-month low

Bangladesh recorded 291 new Covid-19 cases in the 24 hours till Saturday morning, which is the lowest in nearly 10 months.

The last time Bangladesh recorded a low number of new cases was April 18 last year, when 306 people tested positive for Covid-19. On April 17, it was 266.

With the new infections, the total number of cases has risen to 540,266, according to the daily virus update released by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) on Saturday afternoon.

The latest figures showed an infection rate of 2.26%.

The daily test-positivity rate for Covid-19 in Bangladesh has remained below the 3% mark for nine consecutive days.

As many as 12,871 samples, including the pending ones, were tested in the 210 authorized labs -- government and private -- across the country.

The overall infection rate of the country stands at 14.09%.

Deaths

The country recorded 13 new deaths from Covid-19 in the 24-hour period, bringing the overall death toll to 8,266.

Of the 13 deceased – seven men and six women – seven were from Dhaka division; two each from Chittagong and Rajshahi; and one each from Sylhet and Mymensingh divisions.

All the victims died at different hospitals in the country.

So far, 6,259 men (75.72%) and 2,007 women (24.28%) have died from Covid-19 across the country. 

Since the beginning, 4,610 people have died in Dhaka division, 1,517 in Chittagong, 472 in Rajshahi, 556 in Khulna, 249 in Barisal, 309 in Sylhet, 359 in Rangpur, and 194 in Mymensingh.

The mortality rate against the total number of cases detected so far stands at 1.53%.

The health authorities said 374 people recovered from the disease over the preceding 24 hours.

So far, 486,767 patients – 90.1% – have made full recovery across the country.

Currently, 10,068 people are in isolation and 32,712 are quarantined.

Meanwhile, 1,492,345 people have registered to get the vaccine as of 2:30pm on Saturday.

On March 8, health authorities in Bangladesh reported the first three cases of Covid-19, a severe acute respiratory illness caused by a new coronavirus strain which was later named Sars-CoV-2.

The novel coronavirus broke out in China's Wuhan city in late December, 2019 and quickly spread throughout the world, becoming a pandemic in less than three months.

Global situation

The fast spreading coronavirus has claimed 2,395,743 lives and infected 108,793,747 people across the world till Saturday afternoon, according to Worldometer.

As many as 80,822,289 people have recovered from Covid-19 which has spread to 220 countries and territories across the planet.

The US has recorded the most cases since the start of the pandemic with 28,106,704 followed by India with 10,892,550 and Brazil with 9,765,694.

Meanwhile, as many as 492,521 people died from Covid-19 so far in the US.

Brazil has the world's second-highest Covid-19 death toll, after the US, and the third-largest outbreak, after the US and India.

Brazil reported 237,601 deaths from Covid-19 while death toll in India reached 155,588.