Bangladesh on Monday recorded its highest daily coronavirus death toll as well as highest number of single-day cases since the pandemic began, as the government extended the ongoing strict lockdown for another week.
The health authorities reported 164 new deaths and 9,964 cases in 24 hours to the morning.
The country had recorded it highest number of fatalities for the second consecutive day. On Sunday, there were 153 deaths.
Furthermore, the number of single-day infections surpassed the previous high of 8,822 cases on Wednesday.
With the latest figures, the total number of deaths reached 15,229, while the total number of infections rose to 954,881 in the country.
As many as 34,002 samples were tested across the country, for a positivity rate of 29.3%.
Dhaka logged 4,250 cases, the highest among the divisions, followed Khulna with 1,470 cases, Chittagong with 1,367, and Rajshahi with 1,123, according to the latest figures from the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
Also Read - Hard lockdown extended by another week as virus engulfs Bangladesh
Covid-19 hotspot Khulna reported 55 deaths, the most among the eight divisions, followed by Dhaka with 40 deaths.
Chittagong counted 18 deaths while Rajshahi and Rangpur divisions counted 16 deaths each. Barisal division reported nine deaths, Sylhet eight, and Mymensingh two.
Of the 164 deceased – 109 men and 55 women – 83 were aged above 60, 47 aged between 51 and 60, 18 aged between 41 and 50, 12 aged between 31 and 40, and four in 21-30 age group.
The pandemic has, so far, claimed the lives of 10,785 men (70.82%) and 4,444 women (29.18%).
The mortality rate against the total number of cases detected so far stands at 1.59%.
The overall test positivity rate stands at 14.13%.
On the other hand, another 5,185 patients recovered from the infectious disease across the country, taking the total number of recoveries to 839,082.
Vaccination
On Monday, 743 people received second dose of Oxford-Astrazeneca vaccine, taking the total number of second doses administered to 4,291,707. Meanwhile, a total of 5,820,015 people have received the first dose of the vaccine.
Additionally, 7,740 people received first dose of Sinopharm vaccine over the same period, taking the total to 78,748 till now, while 2,237 people had received second dose of the vaccine till Monday.
Meanwhile, 876 people have received first dose of Pfizer vaccine till now, taking the total to 2,742.
The health authorities in Bangladesh on March 8, 2020 reported the first three cases of Covid-19, a severe acute respiratory illness caused by a new coronavirus strain named Sars-CoV-2.
Also Read - Bangladesh expands Covid vaccination to citizens aged at least 35
Since November last year, five variants of the virus have been detected in Bangladesh, including the Delta variant (B.1.617.2).
The coronavirus disease 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 had claimed more than 3,995,000 lives and infected as many as 184,677,000 people across the world till Monday afternoon, according to Worldometer.
As many as 168,996,000 people have recovered from Covid-19 which has spread to 220 countries and territories across the planet.
