Despite the mounting Covid-19 deaths and the recent spike in the seven-day moving average of fatalities, Bangladesh is seemingly doing better than most countries in South Asia.
Bangladesh has the third lowest number of Covid-19 deaths per million among the eight countries of the region — 60 persons.
However, in terms of the number of total deaths, Bangladesh, a country with a population of over 165 million, is one of the top three worst-hit countries in South Asia.
From 0.57, the lowest ever, in the third week of March 2020, the seven-day rolling average of Covid-19 deaths jumped to 80 yesterday.
With a fresh wave afflicting the country, it only took 15 days for the death toll to go from 9,000 to 10,000 (total fatalities crossed 9,000 on March 31).
Bangladesh recorded 96 coronavirus deaths between Tuesday and Wednesday mornings, the highest single-day toll since the outbreak of the disease. It posted another 94 casualties in the following 24 hours, taking the overall death toll from the pandemic to 10,081, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
Till date, 5,115,572 tests have been conducted in the country, leading to an infection rate of 13.83%.
Neighbouring India, with a population of 1.39 billion, is struggling to tackle the situation with a staggering number of cases and deaths.
India holds the grim record of having the highest number of Covid-19 deaths per million people in South Asia with 125 deaths. The country has so far recorded 173,152 deaths and over 14 million cases.
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With a population of 224.2 million, Pakistan is another South Asian country hit hard by the pandemic, reporting 71 deaths per million people (15,872 fatalities in total).
On the other hand, Bhutan has done remarkably well in handling the pandemic. A small country with a population of 778,267, Bhutan has recorded only one Covid-19 death since reporting its first patient.
The country’s caseload is also low compared with other countries across the globe — only 929 people have tested positive for Covid-19 in Bhutan since March 2020.
Although the number of coronavirus deaths in Maldives (population 547,985; 67 deaths) and Nepal (population 29.54 million; 3,061 deaths) are fewer compared to Bangladesh, they have recorded higher deaths per million people — 122 and 104, respectively.
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka (population 21.48 million) has posted 28 deaths per million people while Afghanistan (population 39.61 million) recorded 64.
On the global Covid-19 scene, Italy has the highest number of deaths (1,913) per million.
The UK (1,865 deaths per million), the USA (1,738 deaths per million), Brazil (1,694 deaths per million), France (1,526 deaths per million), Russia (712 deaths per million) and Turkey (408 deaths per million) are some of the other countries that have been very badly affected by the pandemic.
Source: Worldometer, World Health Organization, Directorate General of Health Services
Analysis by Syed Abdullah Al Ahsan
Infographic by Asmaul Hoque Mamun