Staff Correspondent 

Bangladesh recorded 77 more deaths during the last 24 hours till Saturday morning, the highest one-day total since the Covid-19 pandemic hit the country.

The new death figure exceeded Thursday’s 74 as the pandemic keeps wreaking havoc across Bangladesh with new variants – “one from the UK and another from South Africa.”   

The number of new Coronavirus cases dropped slightly to 5,343 after registering over 7,000 cases for the fifth day in the last six days until Friday, said a handout issued by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).

Bangladesh on Friday recorded 7,462 news cases which was 6,854 on Thursday. On April 4, the country recorded 7,087 Covid cases and 7,075 the next day. On April 6, the number was 7,213 and 7,626 the next day.

The infection rate slipped to 20.49 percent during this period from 23.57 percent of Friday’s.

With the new 77 deaths, the Covid-19 fatalities rose to 9,661 while the mortality rate remained static at 1.42 percent for two consecutive days. During the reporting period, 3,837 patients recovered, raising the number of recoveries to 572,378, the DGHS said.

Meanwhile, the government enforced a 7-day lockdown from April 5 to bring the situation under control keeping garment factories and offices open on condition of maintaining health protocols. Later, it allowed public transports movement in city corporation areas and reopened shops and shopping malls within a few days.

Besides, people’s apathy to follow health guidelines and lack of awareness failed to bring any positive impact from the apparently relaxed lockdown. The virus claimed 568 lives in Bangladesh in January alone this year, while 281 in February and 638 in March. Bangladesh has so far recorded 678,937 coronavirus cases, according to the handout. The number of daily cases and infection rate had dropped below 5 percent earlier this year but then it continued to rise, posing a big challenge for the country’s health system. Bangladesh reported its first cases on March 8 last year and confirmed the first death from the virus 10 days later. Bangladesh has so far tested 4,973,489 samples, including 

26,077 in the last 24 hours, the DGHS said.

Of the deceased, 51 died in Dhaka division, 15 in Chattogram, 3 in Rajshahi, two in Khulna, one each in Barishal and Sylhet, four in Rangpur divisions.

As of now, 5,575 coronavirus patients died in Dhaka division, 1,734 in Chattogram, 525 in Rajshahi, 609 in Khulna, 289 in Barishal, 336 in Sylhet, 385 in Rangpur and 208 in Mymensingh division.

So far, 7226 men (74.80) and 2,435 women (25.25) died of Covid-19.

Vaccination drive

The vaccination campaign, launched on February 7 with doses received from the Serum Institute of India, continues across the country with experts calling for intensifying it further.

On Thursday, Bangladesh began its second phase of inoculating people against the coronavirus disease amid uncertainty around vaccine availability.

No respite from global surge too

Around 134,504,773 Covid-19 cases have been confirmed around the world, according to the data received from the Centre for System Science and Engineering of Johns Hopkins University.

Besides, the death toll from the virus hit 2,914,122, till Saturday morning.