Bangladesh has reported its highest single-day deaths from the coronavirus for two days in a row as the health authorities struggle to rein in Covid-19 transmission following the Eid holidays.
The country reported 258 deaths in the 24 hours to 8am on Tuesday, taking the total number of deaths to 19,779.
The new record surpassed the previous high of 247 on Monday.
Dhaka counted 84 deaths, the highest among the eight divisions, followed by Chittagong with 61 fatalities and Khulna with 50.
Rajshahi division reported 21 deaths while Barisal counted 13, Sylhet seven, and Rangpur and Mymensingh 11 each.
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During the same period, 14,925 people tested positive for the virus, taking the total number of infections to 1,194,752 in the country, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
Dhaka logged 6,188 cases, the highest among the divisions, followed by Chittagong with 3,487 and Khulna with 1,435.
As many as 52,478 samples were tested across the country, with a positivity rate of 28.44%. The overall test positivity stands at 15.81%.
On the other hand, another 12,439 patients recovered from the infectious disease across the country, taking total recoveries to 1,022,414.
The mortality rate against the total number of cases detected so far stands at 1.66%.
ICU beds filling up
According to the DGHS press release, there are only 217 beds vacant, some 16%, among 1,319 ICU beds available for critical patients across the country.
On Sunday, 18% ICU beds were vacant while it was 19% on Saturday and 20% on Friday.
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Day by day, ICUs across the country are getting filled due to the surge caused by the Delta variant.
Highest test positivity in Sylhet for two days
Sylhet division counted the highest 40% test positivity among eight divisions for two consecutive days. On Monday, the rate was 42%.
Barishal division reported a 37% test positivity rate, Chittagong 35%, Khulna 28%, Rangpur 27%, Mymensingh 26%, while Rajshahi and Dhaka divisions reported 25% test positivity rate each on Tuesday.
In Dhaka division, Munshiganj and Gazipur turned out to be the hotspots as the districts reported 54% and 53% test positivity respectively.
Bangladesh again ranked fourth among 222 countries and territories in the world for single-day fatalities recorded on Tuesday, behind Iran, Russia and Indonesia.
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Bangladesh, with over 170 million people, was fifth, as on the previous day, in terms of recording the highest number of daily cases, following Malaysia, Russia, Iran and Indonesia.
Vaccination
Till Tuesday morning, nearly 4.298 million had received the second dose of the Oxford-Astrazeneca vaccine while a little over 1.522 million people received the first dose of the vaccine and were awaiting the second dose.
Additionally, 159,000 people received the first dose of the Sinopharm vaccine during the same period, taking the total to 1,485,212 till now, while 12,069 people received the second dose till Tuesday.
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Meanwhile, 12 people were administered the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine, taking the total to 50,235. A total of 288 people have received the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine till now.
Additionally, 58,046 people have received the first dose of the Moderna vaccine, taking the total number to 421,950.
The health authorities in Bangladesh reported the first three cases of Covid-19, a severe acute respiratory illness caused by a strain of coronavirus named Sars-CoV-2, on March 8, 2020.
The fast spreading coronavirus has claimed more than 4.1 million lives and had infected over 195 million people across the world till Tuesday afternoon, according to Worldometer.
As many as 177.36 million people have recovered from Covid-19, which has spread to 220 countries and territories across the planet.
