Deaths hit new record yet again

Bangladesh set another grim one-day record as the highest-ever 78 more deaths from the novel coronavirus were reported in the last 24 hours till Sunday 8am.

With the new fatalities, the death toll reached 9,739 in the country with a fatality rate of 1.42 per cent.

Meanwhile, the number of new cases on Sunday remained somewhat lower than that of the last week, with 5,819 fresh cases recorded in 24 hours. Since 4 April, the number of daily cases crossed the 7,000-mark for four consecutive days.

On March 5, 2021, the 7-day moving average of deaths in Bangladesh was 6.57 — the lowest since May 2020.

Fewer than 40 days have passed since March 5 and on Sunday, the 7-day rolling average stood at 67.57 — the highest since the pandemic began.

Besides, With the fresh infections, the number of total confirmed cases jumped to 684,756, according to the daily virus update released on Sunday afternoon by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).

Of the 78 deceased, including 53 men and 25 women, 47 were from Dhaka Division, 20 from Chittagong, four each from Rajshahi and Khulna, two from Sylhet and one from Rangpur. 

Seventy-seven of them died at different hospitals across the country while one died at home.

So far, 7,279 men (74.74pc) and 2,460 women (25.26pc) have died of Covid-19 in the country.

The mortality rate against the total number of cases detected so far stands at 1.42pc.

As many as 29,376 samples were tested in 248 labs across the country in the past 24 hours. The latest figures show an infection rate of 19.81pc.

A total of 5,002,865 samples have been tested in the country, leading to an overall infection rate of 13.69pc so far.

Against the backdrop of a resurgence of Covid-19 deaths and cases, Bangladesh is set to go into a weeklong hard lockdown starting from April 14 in a bid to curb Covid-19 transmissions, since the existing lockdown has proven to be ineffective in restricting public movement.

The DGHS said 4,212 people had recovered from the infectious disease over the preceding 24 hours.

So far, 576,590 patients – 84.2pc – have made recovery across the country.

On March 8 last year, the health authorities in Bangladesh reported the first three cases of Covid-19, a severe acute respiratory illness caused by a new coronavirus strain named Sars-CoV-2. The country recorded its first Covid-19 death on March 18.