Covid cases keep rising

Bangladesh has registered over 3,500 daily cases for two days in a row after eight long months, as the number of Covid-19 tests has been increased since the second week of March, Bangladesh today conducted a record 27,502 Covid-19 tests and reported 3,567 fresh cases – the highest since 2 July last year when 4,019 cases were reported in a single day after testing 18,362 samples with a 19.10 per cent infection rate. 

The number of tests and new case detections started to decline in the first week of July last year and the fall continued till the first week of March this year.

However, Covid-19 infections and deaths rose steeply in the country from 10 March and eventually jumped to the second highest single-day cases today.  

The daily infection rate saw a drop as 12.97pc of the tested population came out positive for Covid-19 in the last 24 hours. On Tuesday, the country witnessed a significant rise as 13.69pc of the tested people came out positive for the virus.

Bangladesh saw its highest infection rate of 31.91pc on 3 August last year. At least 1,356 new cases were reported after testing 4,249 samples on that day.  

The number of novel coronavirus cases in the country now stands at 580,808.

Further, the country's death toll from the virus now stands at 5,838 with 25 newly reported deaths in the last 24 hours, said a press release of the Directorate General of Health Services. 

Some 1,915 patients were declared free of the virus during the same period, raising the total number of recoveries to 527,909 with a 90.89pc recovery rate.

The country's maiden cases were reported on 8 March last year and the first death from the virus was reported on 18 March.

Neighbouring country India, today, on its lockdown anniversary, recorded over 47,000 new Covid-19 infections – which is a huge jump in active cases. 

According to India's Union Health Ministry's update on Wednesday morning, this took India's tally to 1,17,34,058, the data showed. The country also recorded 275 related fatalities, its highest one-day toll this year. The fatality count pushed the death toll up to 1,60,441, the ministry's data showed.

Meanwhile, India has detected a new "double mutant variant" of the novel coronavirus, the health ministry said on Wednesday. Genome sequencing and analysis of samples from Maharashtra state found mutations in the virus that do not match previously catalogued "variants of concern", the ministry said in a statement.

The dreaded Covid-19 has claimed the lives of 27.47 lakh people globally and nearly 12,48,62,242 people have been recorded as having contracted it till date.