Bangladesh on Monday logged again highest 42 deaths — 33 men and nine women — from Covid-19 in a 24-hour span, taking the total number of fatalities to 930.
On Sunday, the country had recorded the same body count from the deadly disease, which has killed over 406,000 people worldwide so far.
Between Sunday and Monday mornings, the country also recorded 2,735 new Covid-19 patients, taking number of total confirmed cases to 68,504.
Prof Nasima Sultana, additional director general (Administration) of the health services directorate (DGHS), revealed the latest figures during an online briefing from Dhaka Monday afternoon.
At the time, she said, the mortality rate stood at 1.36%.
Of the 42 deceased, 25 were from Dhaka divsion, eight from Chittagong division, two each from Khulna, Barisal and Mymensingh divisions, and one each from Rajshahi, Sylhet and Rangpur divisions, she said.
Quoting data from the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR), Prof Nasima said men account for 77% of the total deceased so far and women 23%.
She said that 657 more Covid-19 patients also recovered since Sunday morning, taking the total number people who recovered to 14,560 — which is 21.25% of all infected.
Deaths from Covid-19, a deadly disease cause by a new coronavirus strain, crossed the 800 mark in Bangladesh on June 5. The country had recorded the first cases on March 8 and the first fatality on March 18.
The country crossed the 100 mark in deaths on April 20.
On June 2, the country had logged 2,911 Covid-19 cases, highest in a 24-hour span.
According to worldometer, more than seven million people across the world was infected until 9pm Monday.
Daily positivity percentage remains over 20%
During the briefing, Prof Nasima said as many as 13,961 samples were collected between Sunday and Monday mornings.
Of those, 12,944 samples were tested in 52 laboratories around the country and 2,735 of them or 21.13% turned out to be Covid-19 positive.
With that, the daily positivity percentage in the country remained over 20% for the fourth consecutive day. It was 20.88% on Sunday, 21.10% on Saturday and 20.07% on Friday.
The daily positivity percentage in Bangladesh had reached an all-time high last Tuesday, with nearly 23% of the total number of samples tested in a day coming back positive.
In all, 410,931 tests have been conducted so far, said Prof Nasima.
Across the country, 297 more people were taken to isolation between Sunday and Monday mornings, while 144 were released and 7,552 remained in isolation.
During the same period, another 2,228 people were home and institutionally quarantined and 1,852 were released. At present, 56,072 people are quarantined across the country.
Chinese team of experts arrives
Meanwhile, on Monday morning, a 10-member team of Covid-19 experts arrived in Dhaka from China — where the novel coronavirus, later named Sars-CoV-2, had first originated late last year — at the invitation of Bangladesh government.
“The team will stay 14 days. During that time, they will visit several hospitals, including the civil and military ones, and quarantine centres in Dhaka and Narayanganj, and exchange views, share experiences with local officials,” said Prof Nasima.
The Chinese delegation will hold meetings the health authority higher-ups and meet the local authorities in other areas virtually regarding Covid-19 and how to address the issues caused by the pandemic, she added.
The severe acute respiratory illness had quickly spread throughout the world after breaking out of China's Wuhan in December last year, becoming a pandemic in less than three months.