Educational institutions to remain shut till Feb 28

The government has decided to keep all educational institutions of the country, except Qawmi madrasas, closed till February 28 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

MA Khair, public relations officer of the Ministry of Education, confirmed the news to the media on Sunday morning.

Earlier on January 29, the closure of all educational institutions was extended up to February 14. 

The government shut all the schools and other educational institutions on March 17 last year after the country confirmed its first Covid-19 cases on March 8.

The closure was extended several times to protect the students from the virus.

Covid-19 situation in Bangladesh

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

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%.

Also Read - Nearly 200,000 get Covid-19 vaccine shots in a day

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

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

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

Mass vaccination

Bangladesh launched its mass vaccination campaign for Covid-19 on February 7, with 736,680 people -- 513,621 men and 223,059 women -- having inoculated as of Saturday, reports BSS.

People aged 40 years and above now can get registered to receive the vaccine shots.

According to an earlier decision of the government, people aged 55 years and above were only eligible for taking vaccines but the decision was revised a day after launching the countrywide Covid-19 vaccination drive on February 7.