Staff Correspondent: Dhaka, Jul-21,

Marking another grim Eid under the shadow of a pandemic and amid growing concerns about the highly infectious delta variant, Bangladesh saw 173 more Covid-19 deaths Wednesday.

Also, Covid-19 infections in Bangladesh have reached 97% of the peak, with 11,533 new cases reported on average each day. The highest daily average was recorded on July 15.

The country recorded 7,614 new infections in 24 hours till Wednesday morning after testing 24,979 samples.

Bangladesh reported its highest daily Covid-19 fatality number – 231 –  on July 19 and 13,768 infections on the 12th of the month. Wednesday's death counts are the lowest in 14 days and cases lowest in 18 days.

The country is in the grip of a second wave of the virus that is threatening to overwhelm its health service. There have been 1,136,503 infections and 18,498 coronavirus-related deaths in Bangladesh since the pandemic began, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).

Meanwhile, the daily test positivity rate rose to 30.48% from Tuesday's 29.31% when the World Health Organization recommends a 5% or below rate.

As the death rate stood at 1.63%, Dhaka division reported the highest 58 deaths, Khulna 38, Chattogram 32, Rangpur 16, Rajshahi 11, Barishal eight, Sylhet six, and Mymensingh four.

However, the recovery rate increased to 84.56%.