Alarming Covid surge in BD: 8,407 new cases 10 more die

Bangladesh reported 10 more Covid-linked deaths with 8,407 fresh cases in 24 hours till Tuesday morning.

Dhaka, Jan 18 :  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 per cent from Monday’s 20.88 per cent after testing 35,054 samples, according to the Directorate general of health Services (DGHS).

Bangladesh last logged 8,456 cases and 197 deaths on August 13, last year with a positivity rate of 20.83% per cent 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.

Among the new deceased, eight were men and two were women.

Seven deaths were reported in Dhaka division while one each in Chattogram, Khulna and Mymensingh divisions.

The mortality rate declined a bit more to 1.72 per cent.

The recovery rate also marked a fall to 95.16 per cent with the recovery of 475 more patients during the 24-hour period.

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, reports UNB.