Although January saw an increase in Covid-19 infections in the country, the number of deaths was comparatively much lower than in July-August last year when the infection rate was similar to the first month of this year.
Between January 1 and 31, the number of daily deaths recorded ranged from four to 34, which is significantly less than the previous peak.
In January, a total of 322 people died of Covid-19 while in July the figure stood at 6,182. In August it was 5,510.
In the last week of January, 140 deaths were recorded. Of them, only 31 people were fully or partially vaccinated and 109 people were not vaccinated.
Between July 7 and August 12, except for a few days, Bangladesh constantly recorded over 200 deaths a day.
On August 5 and 10, the single-day death count stood at 264, which is the highest till now.
The infection rate and the death rate started declining in September and the number of deaths came down to single figures every day from the last week of October last year.
In October, November and December last year, the curve of daily cases and deaths significantly went down.
The seven-day moving average of daily cases in those three months was below 1,000. There was a significant decline in the seven-day moving average of the daily deaths as well.
The seven-day moving average of daily deaths came down below 10 since the last week of October and remained below 10 till the third week of January.
The seven-day moving average of daily deaths was 22 on January 31.
In terms of infections, the number of Covid-19 patients crossed the 1,000 threshold after three months on January 6. The number of cases crossed 5,000 in mid-January. Since January 20, Bangladesh has recorded over 10,000 cases per day.
In January, the country came close to breaking the highest ever daily caseload of 16,230 recorded on July 28 last year. January’s highest number of daily infections was 16,033.
In a recent interview with Dhaka Tribune, Dr KFM Ayaz, senior consultant (internal medicine) at Evercare Hospital, said that the death rate would not be as high as the previous waves because a section of the population has developed antibodies.
“The data say the death rate is much lower compared to the infection rate now and the death rates in March and July last year. I would say many people have developed some sort of immunity against the virus, either from vaccination or immunity developed from Covid-19 recovery.”