Staff Correspondent: Dhaka, Jul-31,
As health authorities scramble to prevent the spread
of the Delta variant, Bangladesh added 218 fatalities to its national tally on
Saturday.
The country registered over 200 single-day
fatalities for the last six days as it is fighting a horrific wave of the
pandemic that overwhelmed its healthcare systems.
The country recorded 9,369 new cases on Saturday
after testing 30,980 samples, and reported the highest daily Covid-19 fatality
number – 258 – on July 27 and 16,230 infections the next day, according to the
Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
There have been 1,249,484 positive cases and 20,685
coronavirus-related deaths here since the pandemic began, the DGHS said.
Meanwhile, the daily test positivity rate took a
negligible fall to 30.24% from Friday’s 30.77 %, while the World Health
Organization (WHO) recommends a 5% or below rate.
However, the recovery rate rose to 86.29% from the
previous day’s 85.81 % and the case fatality rate to 1.66% from last day’s 1.65
%
As many as 14,017 patients recovered from the fatal
disease in the 24-hour period.
Among the latest deaths, the highest 67 deaths were
recorded in Dhaka division followed by 55 in Chattogram, 27 in Khulna, 22 in
Rajshahi, 16 in Rangpur, 12 in Mymensingh, 10 in Barishal, and nine in Sylhet
divisions.
Of them, 134 were men and 84 women. Among them, one was between 0-10 years of
age, six between 21-30, 17 between 31-40, 37 between 41-50, 37 between 51-60,
66 between 61-70, 33 between 71-80, 15 between 81-90, four between 91-100 and
two over 100 years old.
Astrazeneca’s fresh rollout
On a positive note, Bangladesh will resume
vaccination with Astrazeneca shots within the next few days, said Health
Minister Zahid Maleque.
“We’ll resume vaccination with Astrazeneca jabs
within the next 2-1 days. Those who failed to take the second dose after
getting the first one will be able to get it now,” he said.
He said the government has an overall stock of 2 crore
60 lakh vaccine doses now.
Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen and Health
Minister Zahid Maleque on Saturday received the second consignment of
AstraZeneca vaccine doses from Japan under the COVAX facility.
The second consignment contains 7,81,320 doses of
AstraZeneca vaccine.
A cargo flight of Cathay Pacific that carried the
vaccine doses from Japan landed at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport
at 3:15 pm.
The third consignment that will contain 6,16,780
doses of the vaccine is scheduled to arrive here on August 3.
End/dct/Msi/Sma/
