Bangladesh has crossed the grim milestone of 22,000 Covid-19 deaths, as the country continues to battle the prolonged second wave of the pandemic.
Health authorities reported 248 new deaths in the 24 hours to 8am on Friday, which raised the total number of deaths to 22,150, according to the latest data by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
The latest 1,000 deaths happened in just four days; the country crossed the 21,000 mark on Monday. The 20,000-mark was crossed on July 28.
The caseload surged to 1,335,260 after 12,606 people had tested positive for the viral infection until 8am Friday.
As many as 48,807 samples were tested across the country, with a positivity rate of 26.25%.
Chittagong counted 75 deaths, the highest among the eight divisions in the last 24 hours, followed by Dhaka with 69 fatalities.
Khulna division reported 36 deaths, while Barisal reported 20, Rajshahi and Sylhet reported 16 each, and Rangpur and Mymensingh divisions counted eight Covid deaths each.
Dhaka logged 5,339 cases, the highest among the divisions, followed by Chittagong with 3,365 and Khulna 761.
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An additional 15,494 patients recovered from the infectious disease across the country, taking the figures for total recovery to 1,172,437.
The mortality rate against the total number of cases detected so far stands at 1.66%.
Vaccination progress
So far, around 4.34 million people have received the second dose of the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, while about 1.47 million have only received the first dose and are awaiting the second one.
Moreover, 193,448 people received their first dose of the Sinopharm vaccine in the last 24 hours, taking the total to over 3.317 million, while another 12,855 people received their second jab of the Chinese vaccine.
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Additionally, another 1,662 people received their second dose of the Pfizer vaccine, taking the count to 7,038.
As many as 50,255 people have been administered the first dose of the vaccine.
Besides, 86,386 more people received the first dose of Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine, taking the total to over 1.101 million.
Bangladesh reported its first three cases of Covid-19, a severe acute respiratory illness caused by a strain of coronavirus later named Sars-CoV-2, on March 8 last year.
The fast-spreading coronavirus has claimed more than 4,284,000 lives and infected over 201,897,000 people across the world till Friday evening, according to Worldometer.
More than 181,626,000 million people have recovered from the disease, which has affected 220 countries and territories across the planet.