Bangladesh has recorded the highest number of Covid-19 cases in a day -- 5,181 -- since the pandemic made landfall in the country in March last year.
Between 8am Sunday and 8am Monday, the health directorate reported the new cases which took the total to 600,895.
At the same time, 45 more deaths from Covid-19 were also recorded around the country. It was the highest daily figure since August 28 last year when authorities recorded 47 deaths.
With the new deaths, the country's total toll stood at 8,949 until Monday morning.
During the late winter season, the infection rate had started decreasing sharply with the country recording 2.30% coronavirus positive cases on February 8 this year.
But the number of cases started going up significantly in recent times, which forced the government to impose fresh restrictions across the country on Monday.
Monday's press release from the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) said of the 28,195 samples tested between 8am Sunday and 8am Monday, 18.38% came back positive, taking the percentage of cases detected from total tests -- 4,617,025 -- so far to 13.01%
Meanwhile, the recovery count rose to 538,018 after another 2,077 patients were discharged from the hospitals during the same period.
Of the total infections, 89.54% of patients have recovered and 1.49% died so far since the first Covid-19 positive cases were reported in the country on March 8 last year.
Of the 45 new deceased, 30 were male and 15 female. Twenty-eight people died in Dhaka Division, six in Chittagong, five in Rajshahi, three in Khulna and one each in Barisal, Mymensingh and Rangpur.
So far, 5,081 people died in the Dhaka division, 1,628 in Chittagong, 499 in Rajshahi, 577 in Khulna, 273 in Barisal, 317 in Sylhet, 373 in Rangpur and 201 in Mymensingh.
On March 18, 202, Bangladesh had reported its first Covid-19 death.
Following a spike in infections, the government took a tougher stance to fight the pandemic.
The Health Ministry also recently sent letters to districts, directing the officials concerned to impose fines on people flouting Covid-19 protocols, after the recent surge in cases.
The country launched a countrywide vaccination drive on February 7. As the daily infection rate keeps rising, the government extended the closure of school and colleges until May 23.
The Covid-19 first 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.
Until Monday evening, the fast-spreading novel coronavirus claimed over 2,797,700 lives after infecting more than 127,874,400 people across the world while over 103,067,100 people recovered, according to worldometer.
