Dhaka, Feb 16 (UNB): The daily coronavirus infection rate in Bangladesh fell to 2.68% on Tuesday after the health authorities reported 396 fresh cases until Tuesday morning.
Thirteen new Covid-19 related deaths were also confirmed, taking the local tally to 8,298. So far, 541,434 cases have been confirmed in the country, data released by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) showed.
Bangladesh reported its first cases on March 8 and the first death on March 18.
The daily coronavirus infection rate was 3.15% on Monday, while the overall infection rate stood at 13.97percent. The figure is expected to fall further as a mass countrywide coronavirus vaccination drive has been going on.
But the mortality rate remained at 1.53 percent for the past few days, including Tuesday, said the handout.
So far, 488,621 patients (90.25%) have recovered from coronavirus.
As of now, 3,877,042 samples have been tested, including 14,788 in the past 24 hours.
Vaccination in Bangladesh
The countrywide Covid-19 vaccination drive kicked off on February 7.
Bangladesh inked an agreement with the Serum Institute of India Pvt Ltd, the world’s largest vaccine maker, for 30 million doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine. Serum will send five million doses each month between January and June.
Five million doses arrived in Jan and India gifted another two million doses as gift.
The government, determined to make the vaccination driver a success, brought down the age to 40 for registration to get jabs.
The government is providing the vaccine for free.
So far, 50,730 people have received the first shot. After the first dose, the second one has to be taken within 8 to 12 weeks.
Global Covid Situation
Amid a downward trend in the world’s Covid-19 trajectory, new variants have raised worries about re-infections despite widespread vaccination.
The global caseload has now surpassed 109 million, according to Johns Hopkins University.
To be specific, the total case count reached 109,140,417 while the death toll from the virus mounted to 2,407,537 on Tuesday morning, as per the university’s data.
The US, the world’s worst-hit country, has so far registered 27,692,690 Covid cases and 486,317 fatalities, according to the university’s corona tracker.
Brazil registered 528 deaths from Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, raising the death toll to 239,773, the Ministry of Health said Monday.
The ministry also reported 32,197 more cases, bringing the national count to 9,866,710.
Besides, India has so far registered 10,916,589 Covid cases and 155,732 deaths, according to the health ministry.
No room for complacency: WHO
Confirming a drop in the number of Covid-19 cases globally for the fifth consecutive week, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) has cautioned against complacency saying “the fire is not out” yet.
“The fire is not out, but we have reduced its size. If we stop fighting it on any front, it will come roaring back,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of WHO, stressing “simple public health measures work, even in the presence of variants”.
“Last week saw the lowest number of reported weekly cases since October,” the head of the UN health agency said at a press briefing in Geneva on Monday.
Noting a nearly 50 percent drop in Covid cases this year, he stressed that “how we respond to this trend” is what matters now.
