News Desk :
The fresh cases of Covid-19 and deaths caused by the deadly virus marked a rise in Bangladesh as the country’s health authorities recorded 16 more deaths and 443 new cases in the last 24 hours till Wednesday morning.
The Covid-19 fatalities in the country rose to 8,314 and the caseload to 541,877, according to the latest figures provided Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), reports UNB.
In a handout, the DGHS said the daily coronavirus infection rate in Bangladesh fell to 2.67 percent from Tuesday’s 2.68 percent, while the overall infection rate stood at 13.92 percent, a little bit lower than yesterday’s 13.97.
However, the mortality rate remained almost steady at 1.53 percent for the past few days, including Tuesday, said the handout, adding that 489,254 patients (90.29 pc) have recovered from the virus infection so far.
Till date, 3,893,654 samples have been tested, including 16,612 in the past 24 hours.
Bangladesh reported its first Coronavirus cases on March 8 and the first death on March 18 last year.
The countrywide Covid-19 vaccination drive kicked off on February 7.
Bangladesh inked an agreement with the Serum Institute of India Pvt Ltd, the world’s largest vaccine maker, for 30 million doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine. Serum will send five million doses each month between January and June.
Five million doses arrived in Jan and India gifted another two million doses as gift.
The government, determined to make the vaccination drive a success, brought down the age to 40 for registration to get jabs. The government is providing the vaccine for free.
So far, 60,602 people have received the first shot. After the first dose, the second one has to be taken within 8 to 12 weeks.
