7 more die, 1140 new cases in Covid surge in Bangladesh

Covid-19

Dhaka, Jan 6 - Bangladesh is currently seeing a surge of Covid-19 cases as health authorities logged 4,920 infections in the last seven days till Thursday morning.

The country reported seven more deaths and 1,140 fresh cases in 24 hours till Thursday morning, said the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).

Bangladesh’s daily cases last crossed 1,100 on September 29, 2021 with the registering of 1,178 cases and 17 deaths.

With the detection of fresh cases after testing 23,435 samples, the daily-case positivity rose to 4.86 per cent from Wednesday’s 3.20 per cent during the period, according to the DGHS.

The fresh numbers took the country’s total fatalities to 28,097 while the caseload mounted to 15,89,947.

Meanwhile, the mortality rate remained static at 1.77 per cent during the period.

Besides, the recovery rate further declined to 97.51 per cent with the recovery of 196 more patients during the 24-hour period.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh’s total tally of Omicron cases stood at 10 with detection of three cases on December 31, according to GISAID, a global initiative on sharing all influenza data.

On December 9, Bangladesh again logged zero Covid-related death after nearly three weeks as the pandemic was apparently showing signs of easing.

The country reported this year’s first zero Covid-related death in a single day on November 20 along with 178 infections since the pandemic broke out in Bangladesh in March 2020.

Bangladesh reported the highest number of daily fatalities of 264 on August 10 this year, while the highest daily caseload was 16,230 on July 28 this year.

Restrictions

The government is going to put some restrictions amid the surge in Covid-19 cases, including plying public transport at their half capacities and closing shops and markets by 8pm, said Health Minister Zahid Maleque on Tuesday.

“Public buses will operate at half of their capacities while shops and shopping malls will have to be closed by 8 pm instead of 10 pm,” Maleque said while talking to reporters at the Secretariat.

Deputy Commissioners have been asked to enforce the directives within seven days, he added.

However, the government is not considering any lockdown in the country right now and it will think about it if the infection rate goes up further, said the health minister. - UNB