Daily Covid-19 tests hit 50-day low

Despite repeated calls from experts to increase testing, Bangladesh on Saturday witnessed the lowest number of Covid-19 tests conducted in a single day since May 30.

The development came with some 10,923 samples of suspected patients tested between Friday and Saturday mornings.

The tests confirmed 2,709 new cases of Covid-19, taking the number of patients to 202,066 till date.

Additional Director General of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), Prof Dr Nasima Sultana, disclosed the figures at a daily health bulletin on Saturday afternoon. 

The last time fewer than 11,000 tests were conducted was on May 30. On that day, 9,987 tests were conducted, to detect 1,764 cases.

In the past 24 hours, 34 more people succumbed to their infections from the deadly virus, pushing up the country’s death tally so far to 2,581.

Also, 1,373 people got rid of the virus over the 24-hour span, raising the number of recoveries to 110,098.

Notably, the number of tests is on a downward trend amid allegations of a shortage of testing kits, something the government has been refuting for the past few days.

In the wake of growing criticism from different quarters, the government started increasing the number of Covid-19 tests significantly from late May, and vowed to do as many tests possible, taking the number to near 20,000 a day.

However, the trend has slowed down especially since July 3, with the health authorities lately claiming that people’s reluctance to test has caused the number of daily tests to go down.