Mayor of Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh urged the owners of business establishments and shops to shut their shops by 8 pm every day as Covid-19 infections are increasing alarmingly in the country.

The DSCC Mayor came up with the request while talking to reporters after visiting the Gopibagh Boys Club Field in the city on Wednesday.

Some 3,554 people were diagnosed with Covid-19 in Bangladesh in 24 hours till Tuesday morning, the highest number of infections registered by the country in a single day.

Bangladesh also recorded 18 more Covid-related deaths during the period, raising the death toll to 8,738.

With the fresh cases, Bangladesh has seen the worst daily increase since July 15, 2020, pushing up the total infections to 525,994. The infection rate jumped to 13.69 percent from 11.19 percent a day before.

Bangladesh is seeing an alarming rise in coronavirus infections in the past few weeks after a downtrend in both the death toll and new cases.

On January 19, Bangladesh reported its virus infection rate at just 5 percent and at one stage it fell below 3 percent. The cases have started soaring again since February 9.

Bangladesh reported its first Covid-19 cases on March 8, 2020, and the first death on March 18 the same year.