Covid-19 claims 11 more lives, infects 446 in Bangladesh

Covid-19 claimed 11 more lives and infected another 446 in Bangladesh in the last 24 hours till Monday morning, showing higher rates both in death toll and infection than that of Sunday, reports UNB. 

With the latest figures, the Covid-19 fatalities in the country rose to 8,285 and the caseload to 541,038, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).

In a handout, the DGHS said the daily coronavirus infection rate in Bangladesh rose to 3.15 percent from Sunday’s 2.53 percent, while the overall infection rate stood at 14.01 percent, a little bit lower than yesterday’s 14.05.

However, the mortality rate remained almost steady at 1.53 percent for the past few days, including Monday, said the handout, adding that 487,870 patients (90.17 pc) have recovered from the virus infection so far.

As of now, 3,862,254 samples have been tested, including 14,138 in the past 24 hours.

Bangladesh reported its first Coronavirus cases on March 8 and the first death on March 18 last year.

Vaccination in Bangladesh

Amid the surging coronavirus situation, the government launched a countrywide Covid-19 vaccination drive on February 7.

Doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine that Bangladesh brought from India’s Serum Institute have been sent to hospitals across the country to make the inoculation drive a success.

Physicians and nurses have been trained to carry out the vaccination drive. So far, top government officials, Cabinet members, judges, policemen, along with general people, have received the vaccine.

On February 8, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina instructed the authorities concerned to bring down the age limit for the vaccine recipients from 55 years to 40 to widen the drive.

After the first dose, the second one has to be taken within 8 to 12 weeks.

Some 20-30 lakh more doses of the Covid-19 vaccine will arrive in Bangladesh on February 22, said Nazmul Hassan Papon, the Managing Director of Beximco Pharmaceuticals.

“No initiative has been taken yet to bring the Covid-19 vaccine under private management as everyone is getting free vaccine. So, there’s no need to bring vaccine under private management now,” he said. 

Global Covid Situation

The number of global Covid-19 cases exceeded 108.7 million on Monday, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University (JHU).

The global case count reached 108,791,798 while the death toll from the virus climbed to 2,399,393, according to the JHU.

The US, which remained the worst-hit country in the world, has registered 27,639,455 cases with 485,332 deaths.

Besides, Brazil reported 24,759 new Covid-19 infections and 713 deaths in the last 24 hours, bringing the national counts to 9,834,513 and death toll 239,245.

Brazil has the world's second highest Covid-19 death toll after the United States and the third largest caseload after the USA and India.

More than 5 million people in Brazil have received the first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, while over 190,000 have had the second dose.

India’s total caseload rose to 10,904,940 on Monday while the death toll stood at 155,642, according to the JHU data.