BD reports 78 more deaths, 4,636 new cases

Bangladesh saw a sharp rise in the number of daily cases on Monday, recording 4,636 coronavirus infections, the highest single-day count in nearly 10 weeks.

The daily infection rate jumped to 19.27 per cent from Sunday’s 16.38 per cent, the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) said in a press release.

During the 24-hour period until 8am today, the health authorities recorded 78 deaths, pushing the local tally to 13,626. The mortality rate remains 1.59 per cent.

The sharp rise in daily cases and infection rate comes amid ongoing restrictions on people’s movement aimed at curbing the spread of the virus.

Bangladesh reported its first cases on March 8 last year and the first coronavirus-related death on March 18 that year. So far, the country has confirmed 8,56,304 cases.

Until Monday, 91.73 per cent or 7,85,482 patients have recovered.

The total number of tests carried out since before the cases were announced is 63,51,791, including 24,057 in the last 24 hours. The overall infection rate is currently 13.48 per cent.

Among the latest day's victims, 56 were men, and 22 were women. Of the victims, 72 died in different hospitals across the country while six at home. 

Among the latest victims, 23 died in Dhaka division, 15 in Rajshahi, 14 in Khulna, 11 in Chattogram, nine in Rangpur, three in Barishal, two in Sylhet, and one in Mymensingh.

The majority of the victims (9,768) are men and the rest (3,858) are women.

Also, 2,827 patients were declared free of Covid-19 during the last 24 hours, with a 91.73% recovery rate.

Vaccination drive

Bangladesh on Monday started administering Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine doses while it resumed the inoculation of Sinopharm doses on Saturday.

People who have already registered are getting the jabs.

The country received 11,00,000 Sinopharm doses from China and over 1,00,000 doses of Pfizer under the Covax facility run by the WHO and Gavi, the vaccine alliance.

The countrywide vaccination drive was launched on February 7 with doses bought from Serum Institute of India Private Limited.

So far, 58,20,015 people have received the first dose of Covishield manufactured by SII since January 27. Of them, 42,70,322 have received the second shots so far, according to the health authorities.

A vaccine export halt by India had forced Bangladesh to keep administering the first dose suspended since April 26.

As many as 10,576 people received the first dose of Sinopharm vaccine until Sunday.