More than a quarter of Covid deaths in Bangladesh logged in July

Published at 07:10 am July 29th, 2021

Coronavirus-Death-Al Markazul Islami bury Covid-19 victim maintaining WHO guideline-janaza

File photo of a Covid-19 victim given a burial in Dhaka Mahmud Hossain Opu/Dhaka Tribune

Pandemic takes a dangerous turn after the highly infectious Delta variant became dominant

Bangladesh is experiencing the worst bout of the pandemic now as more than 25% of the total coronavirus deaths have been reported in this month.

A total of 5,513 deaths have been logged, so far in July, making it the deadliest month of the pandemic.

As of Wednesday, the overall fatalities from the coronavirus in the country stand at 20,016.

Dhaka reported 9,273 deaths, the highest among the eight divisions followed by Chittagong with 3,696 and Khulna with 2,645.

The northern division of Rajshahi saw 1,548 deaths while Rangpur 989, Sylhet 722, Barisal 621, and Mymensingh 522.

The country is currently going through a devastating wave of infections after the number of patients began to rise in April induced by the highly contagious Delta variant. The situation improved slightly in May before worsening again.

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Bangladesh logged 16,230 new cases on Wednesday, a new daily record, taking the total caseload to 1,210,982.

Another 237 people died from the disease in this period, taking the toll to over 20,000.

It took Bangladesh only four days to report the latest 1,000 deaths. They are among the 12,457 people who died of the coronavirus this year.

Between March and December last year, a total of 7,559 people died of the virus.

Experts believe the actual figures are much higher than the confirmed ones due to a lack of tests, especially in the rural areas.

Health Minister Zahid Maleque has said the priority now was to stem the spread of the virus as the hospitals are overwhelmed.

“The pressure on the hospitals is increasing day by day. If the number of cases continues to rise there will be no more space left in the hospitals,” he said on Wednesday before calling upon everyone to follow the health guidelines.

Globally, over 196.16 million people have been infected by the coronavirus and over 4.19 million have died, according to a tally by Worldometer.

Infections have been reported in more than 210 countries and territories since the first cases were identified in China in December 2019.