The number of daily Covid-19 cases in Bangladesh has dropped below 10,000 for the first time in 12 days, with the country tallying 9,052 new cases on Friday.
As many as 39,445 samples were tested during the period with a test positivity rate of 22.95%, according to figures released by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
On Thursday, the country reported 11,596 new cases with a daily positivity rate of 25.86%.
The number of daily cases and infection rate has been on a downward trend for the last few days.
The health authorities also reported 30 new deaths in the 24-hour period till Friday morning.
The fresh numbers took the country’s total fatalities to 28,494 while the caseload mounted to 1,835,776.
Among the new deceased, 19 were men and 11 women.
Seventeen deaths were reported in Dhaka division while five in Chittagong, three in Sylhet, two in each Rajshahi and Khulna, and one in Barisal divisions.
With 30 new fatalities, the seven-day moving average of single-day deaths in Bangladesh was 30.85 on Friday.
Meanwhile, the mortality rate remained the same as 1.55%.
However, the recovery rate also declined to 86.04% with the recovery of 6,282 more patients during the 24-hour period.
In January, the country reported 322 deaths and 213,294 new cases while 19,112 recovered from the disease, according to the DGHS.
On January 28, Bangladesh logged its earlier highest daily positivity rate at 33.37% reporting 15,440 cases and 20 deaths.
Besides, the country registered the highest daily caseload of 16,230 on July 28 last year, while the highest number of daily fatalities was 264 on August 10 last year.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh’s total tally of Omicron cases reached 69 with the detection of seven more cases till Monday, according to GISAID, a global initiative on sharing all influenza data.
The health authorities marked 12 districts, including Dhaka, as red zones owing to their high infection rates between 10% and 29%.
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, 2020. The first death was reported 10 days later.
Amid growing concerns over the new Omicron variant of the coronavirus, the government on January 13 announced restrictions on movement of people and public transport vehicles. Schools and colleges went on a hiatus while government and private offices started operating with half manpower to curb the spread of the virus.
A large number of the population has also been vaccinated, with the country crossing the landmark of administering 100 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines on December 1, nearly 10 months after launching a nationwide campaign.
The fast-spreading coronavirus has so far claimed over 5.7 million lives and infected over 389 million people throughout the world, according to Worldometer.
More than 308 million people have recovered from the disease, which has affected 223 countries and territories across the planet.