Bangladesh reports highest single-day Covid-19 cases in 56 days
The country's death toll from the virus now stands at 6,021 and the number of coronavirus cases stands at 416,006
Highlights
• Total infected: 416,006
• Total death: 6,021
• Total recovery: 333,588
• Total sample test: 2,404,902
Bangladesh has reported the highest single-day novel coronavirus cases – 1,842 – in the past 56 days.
Previously, the highest number of Covid-19 infections – 1,892 – was recorded on 10 September.
Professor Nazrul Islam, a noted virologist and former vice-chancellor of the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, the infections are on the rise because people are not wearing masks and not following hygiene rules.
Talking to The Business Standard, he said, "The increase in infection rate means we are entering the second wave.
"In the hope of a vaccine, mask-wearing cannot be avoided. Everyone will not get the vaccine and the first stage vaccine may not provide much protection. Now there is no alternative to wearing a mask and following the health guidelines."
The Covid-19 cases in the country currently stand at 416,006, according to a press release issued by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
Bangladesh logged 17 more deaths from the novel coronavirus in the last 24 hours till 8am on Thursday. With this, the country's death toll from the virus now stands at 6,021.
The latest day's infection rate was 12.10% of the total tests, though the overall rate in the country to date was 17.30%. The death rate stands at 1.45%.
Also, 1,891 patients were declared free of Covid-19 during the same period, raising the total number of recoveries to 3, 33,588 with an 80.19% recovery rate.
Among the latest day's victims, 14 were men and three were women. All of them died in different hospitals across the country.
Fifteen of them hailed from Dhaka division and one each from Chattogram and Rajshahi.
Meanwhile, 15,225 samples were tested in 114 labs across the country in the past 24 hours. A total of 2404,902 samples have been tested in the country so far.
A gender breakdown of the Covid-19 victims shows that 4,635 of the total deceased were men and 1,386 were women.
The country's maiden cases were reported on 8 March this year and the first death from the virus was reported on 18 March.