Record 201 virus deaths in a day

Bangladesh broke all previous death records from the on-going Covid-19 pandemic when the death toll stood at 201 in a single day on Wednesday, taking the total number of casualties from the disease to 15,593. The new record surpassed the previous high of 164 on Monday. 

The Covid-19 hotspot Khulna reported 66 deaths, the most among the eight divisions, followed by Dhaka with 58 deaths, amid a nationwide hard lockdown in force for the last seven days to contain the spread of the deadly Delta variant of the virus.

Chittagong division counted 21 deaths while Rajshahi 18, Rangpur 14, Sylhet nine, Mymensingh eight, and Barisal seven.   Another 11,162 people tested positive in the 24 hours to Wednesday morning.

Dhaka logged 1,648 cases, the highest among the divisions followed by Khulna with 1,202 cases and Rajshahi with 962, according to the latest figures by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).

As many as 35,639 samples were tested across the country, for a positivity rate of 31.32pc.

With the latest development, the total number of deaths reached 15,593 while the number of total infections rose to 977,568 in the country. On the other hand, another 5,987 patients recovered from the infectious disease across the country, taking the total number of recovery to 850,502. 

Of the 201 deceased – 119 men and 82 women – 115 were aged above 60, 47 aged between 51 and 60, 25 aged between 41 and 50, nine aged between 31 and 40, four in 21-30 age group, and one belonging to 11-20 age group. The pandemic has, so far, claimed the lives of 11,002 men (70.56pc) and 4,591 women (29.44pc).

The mortality rate against the total number of cases detected so far stands at 1.6pc while the overall test positivity rate is 14.31pc.

Vaccination continues

On Wednesday, 581 people received their second dose of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, taking the total number of people receiving the second shot to 4,293,181. Meanwhile, 5,820,015 people have received the first dose of the vaccine.

Additionally, 7,994 people received their first dose of the Sinopharm vaccine over the same period, taking the total to 95,195 till now. Some 2,237 people received their second dose till Wednesday. 

Meanwhile, 1,122 people received their first dose of the Pfizer vaccine till now, taking the total to 5,010.

Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen on Wednesday said Bangladesh is hopeful of receiving 2.5 million vaccine shots this month from Japan, the European Union (EU) and the US under the Covax facility, apart from a steady flow of jabs from China.

The health authorities in Bangladesh in March 8, 2020 reported the first three cases of Covid-19, a severe acute respiratory illness caused by a new coronavirus strain, which was later named Sars-CoV-2.

Since November last year, five variants of the virus have been detected in Bangladesh including the Indian variant (B.1.617.2) being the latest. It was later renamed as the Delta variant.

The rest of the variants identified in the country are the UK (B.1.1.7), South Africa (B.1.351), Nigeria (B.1.525) and Brazilian (P1) variants of the coronavirus.

The coronavirus disease broke out in China's Wuhan city in late December, 2019 and quickly spread throughout the world, becoming a pandemic in less than three months.

The fast spreading coronavirus has claimed more than 4,010,000 lives and infected as many as 185,456,000 people across the world till Wednesday afternoon, according to Worldometer.

As many as 169,790,000 people have recovered from Covid-19 which has spread to 220 countries and territories across the planet.