Staff Reporter :
Bangladesh’s coronavirus death tally reached 3,471 on Tuesday after the health authorities announced 33 more deaths in the last 24 hours.
The mortality rate is 1.32 percent.
Besides, 2,996 new cases were identified after testing 14,820 samples, pushing up the number of cases to 2,63,503.
So far, 20.46 percent of the total 12,27,988 samples tested turned out to be positive.
Tuesday’s daily infection rate was 20.22 percent.
Meanwhile, 1,535 patients recovered, taking the total number of recoveries to 1,51,972, Additional Director General of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) Prof Dr Nasima Sultana told a regular briefing.
She cited Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Update of World Health Organisation (WHO). According to it, 64.7 percent infected were in Dhaka division, 14.4 percent in Chattogram, 5.5 percent in Rajshahi, 5.1 percent in Khulna, 3.2 percent in Sylhet, 2.7 percent in Rangpur, 2.5 percent in Barishal and 1.9 percent in Mymensingh division till August 10.
Bangladesh reported its first cases on March 8 and the first death on March 18. Since then, 2,749 men and 722 women have died of coronavirus, according to official data.
Among the new victims, 15 died in Dhaka division, three in Khulna, four in Rangpur and one in Mymensingh, and four each in Chattogram and Rajshahi.
One of them is aged between 11 and 20 years, five between 31 and 40, two between 41 and 50, seven between 51 and 60, 14 between 61 and 70, three between 71 and 80 and three more aged between 81 and 90 years.
Dhaka division had the highest number of fatalities with 1,654 deaths, followed by 816 in Chattogram, 268 in Khulna, 226 in Rajshahi, 158 in Sylhet, 139 in Rangpur, 134 in Barishal, and 76 in Mymensingh division.
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin says that his country is the first in the world to register vaccine against COVID-19.
“As far as I know, on Tuesday morning for the first time in the world, a vaccine against the novel coronavirus infection was registered,” he said, according to TASS news agency.
Putin said one of his daughters had tested a Russian COVID-19 vaccine on herself and that she is feeling well.
He said the first Russian COVID-19 vaccine forms stable cell and antibody immunity.
“I know this very well, because one of my daughters got vaccinated. So in this sense, she took part in testing,” Putin said. On Tuesday, the number of globally confirmed COVID-19 cases surpassed 20 million.
Dr Nasima Sultana concluded the bulletin announcing the end of regular briefing.
“From Wednesday, the daily health bulletin will no longer be aired. Instead, the information will be given out to media via press release,” she said.
She assured that this will not interrupt the flow of data.
The daily health bulletin of DGHS started airing as a press briefing from IEDCR on March 8. Journalists were allowed to interact and ask questions after the announcements.
On April 8, it started to air at a fixed time as the daily health bulletin of DGHS and it only relayed the DGHS data.
“DGHS should not have taken such decision. Rather the decision so taken is quite funny. People used to listen to and watch this bulletin on the TVs with much curiosity and interest. Rumour mongers will now take the advantage of it and spread rumours in different directions with motives,” said Professor Dr. M Muzaherul Huq, former Advisor of the World Health Organisation (WHO).
He said, they (DGHS) should have reconsidered and continued this bulletin with limited and specific information.
The number of tests and the place of available facilities in Bangladesh are very important. The infection rate, mortality pattern, number of admitted patients with isolation as well as contact tracing were valuable and media were interested in.
The viewers will not be deprived of their right of having authentic information, he hoped.
