Last week, we said that Bangladesh is travelling with stealth up the world league tables for the Covid-19 pandemic.
One week on and Bangladesh’s position is worse, as the nation approaches the saddening milestone of 1,000 recorded Covid-19 mortalities.
The facts confirm that Bangladesh is now a global Covid-19 hotspot.
20th globally in cases and 38% growth last week. In a week, Bangladesh cases have grown by 38% compared to Brazil, the world’s fastest growing COVID-19 hotspot, growing by 34%. The US has over 2 million cases now. Bangladesh is likely to pass China this week.
3,171 new cases in the last day compared to around 2,000 daily last week: Our daily case growth rate has shot up, lifting from 2,000 cases per day last week to 3.171 (June 8 data).
The trio of Bangladesh, India and Pakistan are shooting up the table together: Growth rankings shift daily, given testing patterns across a week vary by country, but all three SAARC members have consistently been in the top 10 nations by case growth for a week now.
96th in case density by population, climbing 5 places in the past week: Bangladesh now reports 416 cases of Covid-19 per million population, climbing by 38% in just the past week. We said last week that these density rankings will rise quickly, and this is precisely what is happening.
Bangladesh is slowly catching up with India and Pakistan on testing: Compared to a week ago, Bangladesh has marginally closed the gap with India and Pakistan on testing. Testing needs rapid acceleration given the trends above.
Numbers tell a thousand words, and this week we may tragically see the numbers tell a thousand deaths as well.
Until Tuesday, Bangladesh recorded 71,675 Covid-19 cases and 975 deaths.
Mohammad Tufael Chowdhury is a Partner at PwC Australia and a Bangladeshi by origin. He writes in a personal capacity.