The overall attack rate (AR) of Covid-19 in Bangladesh has climbed to 1,421.5 per million people, according to a World Health Organization (WHO) report cited by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) on Friday.
WHO’s Covid-19 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Update (MMWU) for July 28-August 3 said the AR in Bangladesh had increased by 7.2% from the previous, continuing an upward trend.
In epidemiology, AR refers to the proportion of people who become ill with (or who die from) a disease in a population initially free of the disease. Attack rates are typically used in the investigation of acute outbreaks of a disease.
The WHO report is based on inputs provided by the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) in Bangladesh.
DGHS Additional Director General Prof Nasima Sultana told Friday’s daily Covid-19 bulletin that Dhaka Division remains the most-affected with 3,637 cases per million, with the capital alone recording 14,824.2 cases per million.
Chittagong division comes in second with 1,040.7 cases per million, followed by Sylhet (664.3/1m), Khulna (663.5/1m), Rajshahi (608.9/1m), Barisal (608.8/1m), and Rangpur (347.3/1m), said the senior DGHS official.
According to the WHO report, the top five affected districts outside Dhaka city are Faridpur (2,149.7/1m), Narayanganj (1,698.9/1m), Munshiganj (1,627/1m), Chittagong (1,609/1M), and Cox's Bazar (1,252.4/1M).
Sherpur recorded the lowest AR with 188.7/1M cases, below Kurigram (208.9/1M), Gaibandha(237.5/1m), Natore (240.4/1M), and Netrakona (242/1M).
COVID-19 testing coverage increases, but tests decrease
The latest WHO report noted that a lower number of samples have been tested since July 3, despite the steady increase in the number of laboratories.
According to the situation reports for the last three weeks, the number of samples tested has been on a downward trend.
In epidemiological week 31, a total of 77,737 tests have been conducted, 7.1% less than the previous week.
A total of 83,259 samples were tested in week 30, while 87,775 samples were tested in week 29.
However, the latest report said Covid-19 testing coverage has been gradually increasing in Bangladesh, reaching 7,008/1M. This is almost at the level of Sri Lanka(7,567/1M), but it is still lower in comparison to neighboring Thailand (10,731/1M), India (14,726/1M), Nepal (24,114/1M), Malaysia(30,220/1M), and the Maldives (147,442/1M).
The overall case doubling time in Bangladesh has slowed to 12.5 days this week (0.5 days more than epidemiological week 30) while the death doubling time in Bangladesh stands at 18 days (1 day more than the previous epidemiological week).
Bangladesh crossed the 250,000 (252,502) mark in confirmed cases of Covid-19 on Friday, with 2,851 people testing positive in the last 24 hours. .
According to DGHS, a total 3,333 people have died from Covid-19 in the country, so far.
