Covid-19: Lowest daily test-positivity rate since April 5

Bangladesh on Thursday recorded its lowest daily test-positivity rate since April 5. In the 24 hours till Tuesday morning, another 813 cases were detected, at a 4.90% infection rate.

On April 5, the daily test-positivity rate was 4.90% as well. On April 4, it was 2.07%.

This development also marks the continuation of the ongoing trend of single-digit percentage test positivity rate in the country.

On Wednesday, the daily test-positivity rate was 5.66% and on Tuesday it was 5%.

The daily test-positivity rate did not go below double digits from May 3 to October 23 and again from October 25 to December 14.

This clearly depicts a downward trend in the daily test-positivity rate, where the average figure to date stands at 15.38%.

In the last 24 hours, Bangladesh also registered 16 more deaths from the deadly virus – taking the number of total fatalities to 7,849.

With the latest figures, the number of all confirmed cases so far jumped to 525,723, according to the daily virus update released on Thursday by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).

Of the 16 deceased – 11 men and five women – nine were from Dhaka division, five from Chittagong, and one each from Barisal and Sylhet divisions.

All 16 of the victims died at different hospitals across the country.

So far, 5,954 men (75.86%) and 1,895 women (24.14%) have died from Covid-19 across the country. 

Since the beginning, 4,345 people have died in Dhaka division, 1,441 in Chittagong, 449 in Rajshahi, 541 in Khulna, 240 in Barisal, 300 in Sylhet, 350 in Rangpur, and 183 in Mymensingh.

The mortality rate against the total number of cases detected so far stands at 1.49%.

The health authorities said 883 people recovered from the disease over the preceding 24 hours.

So far, 470,405 patients – 89.48% – have made full recovery across the country.

As many as 16,608 samples, including the pending ones, were tested in the 199 authorized labs -- government and private -- across the country.

Currently, 11,193 people are in isolation and 37,089 are quarantined.

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.

Global situation

The fast spreading coronavirus has claimed 1,989,117 lives and infected 92,879,392 people across the world till Thursday afternoon, according to Worldometers.

As many as 66,425,712 people have recovered from Covid-19 which has spread to 220 countries and territories across the planet.

The US has recorded the most cases since the start of the pandemic with 23,616,345 followed by India with 10,512,831 and Brazil with 8,257,459.

Meanwhile, as many as 393,928 people died from Covid-19 so far in the US.

Brazil has the world's second-highest Covid-19 death toll, after the US, and the third-largest outbreak, after the US and India.

Brazil reported 206,009  deaths from Covid-19 while death toll in India reached 151,765.