Bangladesh has registered 3,554 new Covid-19 cases in 24 hours - the highest single-day spike reported in the country in over eight months.
The last time more cases were recorded in a single day was on July 2 when 4,019 people tested positive for the deadly virus.
With the fresh cases, the total number of Covid-19 cases now stands at 577,241 as of Tuesday.
With the latest development, the daily infection rate also climbed up to 13.69%. The last time daily infection rate was higher than this was on December 7 with 15.30% of those tested getting positive results.
The country also recorded 18 fresh deaths from the pandemic between Monday and Tuesday morning, taking the national death toll to 8,738, the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) said in a press release.
Meanwhile, a total of 25,954 samples were tested in government and private testing facilities in 24 hours – the highest number of samples tested in a single day since Covid-19 broke out in the country on March 8, 2020.
Of the 18 deceased – 12 men and six women – 14 were from Dhaka division, three from Chittagong, and one from Rangpur.
Of the victims, 17 died at different hospitals and one at home.
So far, 6,607 men (75.61%) and 2,131 women (24.39%) have died from Covid-19 across the country.
Since the beginning, 4,929 people have died in Dhaka division, 1,603 in Chittagong, 488 in Rajshahi, 570 in Khulna, 265 in Barisal, 315 in Sylhet, 369 in Rangpur, and 199 in Mymensingh.
The mortality rate against the total number of cases detected so far stands at 1.51%.
The health authorities said 1,835 people recovered from the disease over the preceding 24 hours.
So far, 525,994 patients – 91.12% – have made full recovery across the country.
The overall infection rate of the country stands at 12.94%.
Currently, 10,226 people are in isolation and 33,692 are quarantined.
Also, more than 6.3 million people registered around the country to get the first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine till Tuesday afternoon, said the health directorate.
Until Monday, over 4.9 million people have been vaccinated nationwide since January 27.
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 which was later named Sars-CoV-2.
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 2,737,000 lives and infected as many as 124,382,000 people across the world till Tuesday afternoon, according to worldometer.
As many as 100,360,000 people have recovered from Covid-19, which has affected 219 countries and territories across the planet.
