Bangladesh recorded more than 7,000 Covid-19 cases in daily figures for the first time on Sunday, with the country gearing up to enter a week-long lockdown from Monday.
A total of 7,087 people tested positive in the 24 hours to Sunday morning. The country logged a total of 53 deaths over the same period.
According to official data, Bangladesh also recorded its highest ever seven-day moving average of daily Covid-19 deaths – 51.71 – since the pandemic broke out in March, 2020. It was 49.14 on Saturday.
With the latest development, the total number of deaths reached 9,266 while the total infections stood at 637,364 in the country.
The Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) revealed the latest figures on Covid-19 in the country with a press release on Sunday.
The latest figures show an infection rate of 23.07%. The overall infection rate of the country stands at 13.32%.
The health authorities said 2,707 people recovered from the disease over the preceding 24 hours.
So far, 552,482 patients – 86.68% – have made full recovery across the country.
Of the 53 deceased – 45 men and eight women – 37 were from Dhaka division; nine from Chittagong; three each from Rangpur and Mymensingh; and one from Rajshahi division.
Of the victims, 52 died at different hospitals and one at home.
So far, 6,970 men (75.22%) and 2,296 women (24.78%) have died from Covid-19 across the country.
Since the beginning, 5,304 people have died in Dhaka division, 1,673 in Chittagong, 509 in Rajshahi, 592 in Khulna, 276 in Barisal, 327 in Sylhet, 380 in Rangpur, and 205 in Mymensingh.
The mortality rate against the total number of cases detected so far stands at 1.45%.
As many as 30,724 samples, including the pending ones, were tested in the 227 authorized labs -- government and private -- across the country.
Currently, 12,870 people are in isolation and 40,272 are quarantined.
The government on Sunday issued 11 directives for the restrictions on public movement that comes into effect on Monday across the country for a week.
All public transport services (roads, river, railway and domestic flights) will remain suspended while offices, employees and transports of law enforcement and emergency services will be out of the purview of this ban.
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 2,861,275 lives and infected 131,468,234 people across the world till Sunday afternoon, according to Worldometer.
As many as 105,881,369 people have recovered from Covid-19 which has spread to 220 countries and territories across the planet.
