Covid in Bangladesh: 10 more districts designated red zones

Bangladesh district map - Dhaka. Creative Commons.

Dhaka, Jan 19 -- After designating Dhaka and Rangamati as ‘red-zones’, health authorities on Wednesday marked 10 more districts in the ‘high-level risk’ category in the wake of a rise in Covid infections there.

Besides, 32 districts have been designated as ‘yellow zones’ (at mid-level risk) and 16 as 'green zones', officials said. The decision was taken following a week-long survey of the Covid situation in Bangladesh.

The 10 new districts in 'red zones' are Gazipur, Rajshahi, Jashore, Kushtia, Bogura, Dinajpur, Chattogram, Lalmonirhat, Khagrachhari and Panchagarh. The average infection rate in these districts is 10%.

Besides, the infection rate in the capital is 28.11% while that in Rangamati is 10.71%.

The average infection rate in the 'yellow zones' is 5%. The 32 districts are Sylhet, Feni, Narayanganj, Noakhali, Cox’s Bazar, Moulvibazar, Faridpur, Munshiganj, Laxmipur, Shariatpur, Mymensingh, Khulna, Barishal, Manikganj, Sirajganj, Gopalganj, Rangpur, Jamalpur, Naogaon, Jhenaidah, Natore, Satkhira, Pirojpur, Bagerhat, Magura, Narail, Patuakhali, Kurigram, Joypurhat, Sherpur, Jhalakathi and Thakurgaon.

Meanwhile, the districts in the 'green zone' are Brahmanbaria, Habiganj, Narsingdi, Kishoreganj, Sunamganj, Tangail, Madaripur, Rajbari, Bhola, Netrakona, Gaibandha, Chapainawabganj, Barguna, Chuadanga, Nilphamari and Meherpur districts. The infection rate in these districts is below 5%.

The Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) has, in fact, divided the districts of the country into red, yellow and green zones, considering the infection rate of Covid.

Last week, the government imposed restrictions on public movement and other activities like operations of public transport vehicles at half their capacities amid the growing concern over the new Omicron variant of the coronavirus.

Covid situation

Bangladesh reported 10 more Covid-linked deaths with 8,407 fresh cases in 24 hours till Tuesday morning, following an alarming rise in its infection rate.

The positivity rate in the country jumped to 23.98 percent from Monday’s 20.88 percent after 35,054 samples were tested, according to the directorate.

Bangladesh last logged 8,456 cases and 197 deaths on August 13 last year, with a positivity rate of 20.83% percent in 24 hours.

The country is currently seeing a surge of Covid-19 cases as health authorities registered 46,885 infections in the last 17 days since January 1.

The fresh numbers took the country’s total fatalities to 28,164 while the caseload mounted to 1,632,794 on Tuesday.

The mortality rate declined a bit more to 1.72 percent.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh’s total tally of Omicron cases reached 55 with the detection of 22 more cases till Monday, according to GISAID, a global initiative on sharing all influenza data.

On December 9 last year, 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 last year, 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 last year, while the highest daily caseload was 16,230 on July 28 last year. - UNB