The country recorded 17 more deaths from Covid-19 and 1,497 new cases in the 24 hours between 8am Tuesday and 8am Wednesday.
Disclosing the data, in a daily Covid-19 update issued on Wednesday afternoon, the health directorate also said that 1,056 people recovered from the disease during the same time.
Though the number of deaths and infections seemed low, authorities had recorded 40 deaths and 1,675 new cases between 8am Monday and 8am Tuesday.
The latest figures took the death toll from the deadly disease to 12,458, the total number of cases to 793,693, and the total number of recovered patients to 733,866 -- since the pandemic started landfall in Bangladesh in March last year.
However, the number of deaths -- 17 -- recorded between Tuesday and Wednesday mornings was the lowest in 68 days. The country had recorded 16 Covid-19 deaths on March 18.
Some 16,434 samples from suspected Covid-19 patients were tested at 486 labs across the country in the aforementioned 24 hours. The number of positive results took the daily infection rate to 9.11%.
To date, 5,871,353 tests have been conducted across the country, which left the overall test positivity rate at 13.53%.
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Meanwhile, the mortality rate against the total number of cases detected currently stands at 1.57%.
Of the 17 deceased — 10 men and seven women, eight died in Chittagong Division, five in Dhaka and one each in Khulna, Barisal, Sylhet and Mymensingh. All of them died at hospitals.
Of the total deceased, 9,005 were men and 3,453 women.
Alarming surge
On March 8, 2020, the health authorities had reported the first three cases of Covid-19 in Bangladesh.
According to month-wise data from last year, 51 Covid-19 cases were detected in March 2020; 7,616 in April; 39,486 in May; 98,330 in June; 92,178 in July; 75,335 in August; 50,483 in September; 44,205 in October; 57,248 in November; and 48,578 in December.
The beginning of this year had witnessed a drastic fall of Covid-19 cases around the country but the trend lasted for only two months — 21,629 in January and 11,077 in February.
After that, the country witnessed a sharp increase in infection as 65,079 cases were reported in March and 147,837 cases in April.
On the other hand, according to month-wise data from last year, five Covid-19 deaths were reported in March 2020; 163 in April; 482 in May; 1,197 in June; 1,264 in July; 1,179 in August; 970 in September; 672 in October; 721 in November; and 915 in December.
And according to this year’s month-wise data, 568 Covid-19 fatalities were recorded in January; 281 in February; and 638 in March.
Also Read: WHO: Indian Covid-19 variant found in at least 53 territories
Meanwhile, authorities concerned on Tuesday confirmed that two Covid-19 patients had been found infected with the black fungus disease -- adding to the concern of a population already in crisis mode due to the pandemic.
One of them is still undergoing treatment at the hospital, while the other, who had contracted Covid-19 a month back, died three days ago.
Black fungus, also known as mucormycosis, is normally a rare infection, which has a mortality rate of 50%.
According to doctors, there is a link with the steroids used to treat Covid-19, and diabetics are at particular risk. The fungus seems to strike 12 to 18 days after recovery from Covid-19.
Vaccination
Till now, 7,248,829 people have registered for the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine for Covid-19 around Bangladesh.
Since the vaccination drive began on February 7, some 5,820,001 people have taken the first dose of the vaccine and 4,084,030 people received the second shot.
In the last 24 hours till Wednesday morning, 33,655 people were administered the second dose.
However, the administration of the first jab has been halted due to a shortage of vaccine doses.
Bangladesh is currently trying to procure vaccines from other sources, including China, Russia and the US, as the Serum Institute of India is unable to supply the vaccines as per the contract due to the dire condition in India.
Global situation
The severe acute respiratory illness caused by a new coronavirus strain, Covid-19 broke out in China's Wuhan city in late December of 2019 and quickly spread throughout the world.
The outbreak of the virus, which was later named Sars-CoV-2, then became a global pandemic in less than three months.
The fast-spreading virus claimed over 3,501,700 lives after infecting more than 168,606,300 people across the world till Wednesday afternoon, according to worldometer.
At the same time, over 150,164,500 people have also recovered from the disease.