Bangladesh has recorded the highest number of Covid-19 cases in a day -- 7,213 -- since the pandemic broke out in the country in March last year.
Between 8am Monday and 8am Tuesday, the health directorate reported the new cases which took the total to 651,652.
At the same time, record 66 more Covid deaths were recorded across the country -- the highest ever daily figure.
With the new deaths, the country's total toll stood at 9,387 until Tuesday morning.
The latest data also marked the country's highest seven-day moving average of coronavirus fatalities -- 55.71 -- a jump from Monday's 52.71.
Meanwhile, a total of 34,311 samples were tested in total 237 government and private testing facilities in the same period – the highest number of samples tested in a single day till now.
During the late winter season, the infection rate had started decreasing sharply with the country recording 2.30% coronavirus positive cases on February 8 this year.
But the number of cases started going up significantly in recent times, which forced the government to impose a week-long countrywide lockdown from Monday.
The latest figures show an infection rate of 21.02%. To date, 4,847,935 Covid-19 tests have been conducted in the country, amounting to an overall infection rate of 13.44%.
Tuesday was the third consecutive day that the daily tally of new cases and deaths crossed the 7,000 and 50-mark respectively.
Of the 66 deceased, including 39 men and 27 women, 54 were from Dhaka division, four from Chittagong, three from Rajshahi, two each from Khulna, Barisal divisions, and one from Sylhet division.
Of the victims, 64 died at different hospitals and two at home.
So far, 7,043 men (75.05%) and 2,314 women (24.95%) have died from Covid-19 across the country.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, 5,398 people have died in Dhaka division, 1,684 in Chittagong, 513 in Rajshahi, 595 in Khulna, 279 in Barisal, 329 in Sylhet, 381 in Rangpur, and 205 in Mymensingh.
The mortality rate against the total number of cases detected so far stands at 1.44%.
Health authorities said 2,932 people recovered from the disease over the preceding 24 hours.
So far, 558,383 patients – 85.69% – have made full recoveries across the country.
On March 8, health authorities in Bangladesh reported the first three cases of Covid-19, a severe acute respiratory illness caused by a new coronavirus strain named Sars-CoV-2. The country recorded its first fatality on March 18.
The novel coronavirus broke out in China's Wuhan city in late December 2019 and quickly spread throughout the world, becoming a pandemic in less than three months.
The fast-spreading coronavirus has claimed more than 2,876,000 lives and infected at least 132,507,000 people across the world till Tuesday afternoon, according to worldometer.
As many as 106,838,000 people have recovered from Covid-19, which has spread to 219 countries and territories across the planet.