Covid-19: Body count nears 2,500, cases top 196,000

The death toll from the coronavirus infection has reached near 2,500 in Bangladesh as 39 more people have died of the deadly virus in the past 24 hours.

With the latest figure, the number of total fatalities rose to 2,496.

Meanwhile, the country has logged over 196,000 Covid-19 cases with 2,733 people having tested positive over the same period.

With this development, the number of total confirmed cases jumped to 196,323.

Additional Director General (Administration) of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) Prof Nasima Sultana revealed the latest figures in the daily online bulletin on the Covid-19 situation on Thursday afternoon.

She also said that 1,940 people recovered from the disease in the last 24 hours.

So far, a total of 106,963 patients — 54.48% of all infected — have made full recoveries across the country.

Fatality rate 1.27%

Prof Nasima said of the 39 deceased – 31 men and eight women – 18 were from Dhaka division, six each from Chittagong and Khulna, three each from Rangpur and Sylhet, two from Barisal and one from Rajshahi.

Among the victims, 35 died at different hospitals and four at home, she added.

So far, 1,971 men (78.97%) and 525 women (21.03%) have died from the deadly virus across the country, she said.

She added that the mortality rate at the moment is 1.27% of the total cases so far detected.

As per government data, individuals who are 60 years old and above are the most vulnerable to Covid-19, as 43.95% of people in the age group had died until Thursday. A further 29.73% deceased were aged 51-60, 14.38% were 41-50, 7.05% died were 31-40, 3.04% were 21 to 30, 1.16% were 11-20 and 0.68% were under the age of 10.

Lowest test-positivity rate in 12 days 

Prof Nasima Sultana said as many as 13,548 samples were collected from suspected Covid-19 patients in the last 24 hours.

Altogether 12,889 samples were tested at 80 authorized labs across the country. Popular Diagnostic Centre Ltd in Dhaka was newly added to the list.

With 2,733 of the tests coming back positive, the detection rate of new patients in the last 24 hours stood at 21.20%, the lowest in the last 12 days.

On July 5, 19.57% of all samples tested turned out to be Covid-19 positive.

Since late May, the average detection rate has been fluctuating around the 20% mark, meaning that one out of five people tested is infected by the virus.

On Wednesday, the country saw a whopping 25.23% infection rate — the highest to date. 

This was just four days after the test-positivity rate crossed the 24% mark for the first time on Saturday. 

The infection rate for the first time crossed the 20% mark on May 25.

However, after analyzing the government provided Covid-19 data, it can be observed that the country’s infection rate has shot up despite the low number of tests.

From July 10 to Thursday, of the 88,507 samples tested, 23.56% came out positive, the highest weekly infection rate to date.

Earlier between July 3 and July 9, 21.77% of the 102,087 samples tested were found to be positive.

It is noteworthy that the number of tests conducted every day has seen a drastic drop since July 2, when a total of 18,362 samples were tested.

To date, 993,291 tests have been conducted in the country, leading to an overall infection rate of 19.76%, so far.

Covid-19 dedicated hospitals

In Dhaka Metropolitan area, 1,986 patients are currently hospitalized and 4,319 of general beds are vacant. Only 37 intensive care units are vacant and 105 are occupied.

In Chittagong Metropolitan area, 316 patients are currently hospitalized and 341 of the general beds are vacant. Only 20 intensive care units are vacant and 19 are occupied.

The other dedicated hospitals across the country have 1,808 people being hospitalized currently and 5,854 of the total general beds are vacant. A total of 79 patients are currently in ICUs, while 114 ICUs are vacant in the rest of the dedicated hospitals.

“Besides, Bangladesh has a total of 11,279 oxygen cylinders across the country,” Nasima Sultana said.

Covid-19 in Bangladesh so far

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

The country recorded its first fatality on March 18.

On June 10, Covid-19 deaths in Bangladesh crossed the 1,000 mark, and on June 18, the number of total cases crossed the 100,000 mark.

On June 30, the country recorded 64 deaths, which is the highest in a 24-hour span till now.

On July 2, a total of 4,019 positive cases were recorded, which is the highest in a single day till now.

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

The fast-spreading coronavirus has claimed 587,327 lives and infected 13,717,903 people across the world till Thursday afternoon, according to Worldometer.

As many as 8,172,405 people have recovered from Covid-19 which has spread to 213 countries and territories across the planet.