UNB :
Bangladesh registered 38 more Coronavirus-related deaths in 24 hours until Saturday morning, pushing up the total fatalities to 12,549.
Besides, 1,043 more people came out positive in 13,184 sample tests carried out during the period.
The mortality rate remained static at 1.57 percent while the positivity rate declined to 7.91 percent from Friday’s 9.30 percent, the Directorate General of Health Services said in a handout.
Among the deceased, eight died in Dhaka division, four in Chattogram, seven each in Rajshahi and Khulna, five in Sylhet, four in Rangpur, two in Mymensigh and one in Barishal.
With the news cases, the total caseload reached 7,93,386 while the total number of recoveries is 7,37,408, including 1,187 in the last 24 hours.
Bangladesh reported its first coronavirus cases on March 8 last year and the first death on the 18th of that month.
Bangladesh launched its vaccination drive on February 7 with Oxford-AstraZeneca doses bought from India’s Serum Institute.
The administering of the first dose of the vaccine has remained suspended since April 26.
Also, the country, the prime recipient of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines, has suspended the registration for Covid-19 jabs due to vaccine shortage amid a delay in the arrival of shipments from India.
However, recently two other vaccines, Russia’s Sputnik V and China’s Sinopharm, got approval from the Directorate General of Drug Administration (DGDA) for emergency use in Bangladesh.
The administering of the first doses of the Sinopharm vaccine started Tuesday.
A flight of Qatar Airlines carrying a consignment of 100,620 doses of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine will arrive in Bangladesh Sunday.
On Thursday, Bangladesh approved the emergency use of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine.
A massive vaccination of the population for protection against Covid-19 infection will be the major focus of the Tk602,880 crore budget of the fiscal year 2021-2022. There will be a Tk10,000 crore special allocation for facing the impacts of Covid-19.
Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal will place the budget in Parliament on June 3.
