The health authorities reported 69 more coronavirus-related deaths in 24 hours until Sunday morning, taking the death toll to 11,569, as Bangladesh grapples to tackle the second wave of the pandemic.

Besides, 1,359 new cases were detected after examining 14,158 samples, the lowest number of tests since April 18, according to government data.

The health authorities have so far tested 5,498,979 samples. There has been a steady decline in the number of tests since April 28. New cases have been on the wane since April 26 but fell dramatically since April 28, data available on corona.gov.bd show.

However, the daily infection rate fell to 9.6 percent from Saturday’s 9.61 percent while the fatality rate rose to 1.52 percent from 1.51 percent a day before, said the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).

With the new cases, the country’s total Covid-19 caseload now stands at 761,943, the DGHS handout said.

Bangladesh reported its first coronavirus cases on March 8, 2020 and the first death on March 18 that year.

Also read: Covid-19: Bangladesh sees 77 deaths, new cases 2,955

Recovery rate 90%

So far, 687,328 people have recovered, including 2,657 in the last 24 hours, according to DGHS.

This projects a 90.21 percent recovery among the patients.

The number has been declining since April 28.

21% of total deaths in April

Covid-19 claimed 2,404 lives in April alone, the deadliest month for the country since the outbreak of the pandemic last year.

Of all coronavirus-related deaths reported until the end of last month, April alone recorded 20.99 percent fatalities.

Also read: Covid-19 in Bangladesh: Around 21 pc of total deaths reported in April alone

In the last month, 147,837 new cases were officially registered, according to DGHS.

In Bangladesh, 568 coronavirus-related deaths were reported in January, 281 in February and 638 in March.

Dhaka division remains the worst-hit region, registering most of the deaths – 6,752 or 58.31%.

Thirty-eight of the 69 deaths reported today are from Dhaka division and 14 from Chattogram division.

Extended lockdown, indifferent mass

The country is passing through a ‘strict’ lockdown since April 14 but people are still indifferent towards health guidelines and safety rules.

The government later extended the ongoing lockdown till May 5 as the virus surge continued its upward trend in April.

Vaccination drive

Bangladesh kicked off its vaccination drive on February 7 with Oxford-AstraZeneca doses it purchased from the Serum Institute of India Pvt Ltd. 

Bangladesh signed an agreement with Serum for 30 million doses. But a record number of cases in India has made the delivery of the doses uncertain.

The administering of the first dose remained suspended from April 26 and no one in the country has received the second dose in the last 48 hours. 

Also read: Vaccines to be procured at any expense, says PM Hasina

However, DGHS DG Prof ABM Khurshid Alam assured that Bangladesh will get 2.1 million doses of vaccine by the first week of May.

Vaccine production in Bangladesh

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on April 28 approved in principle a proposal for producing Russian and Chinese Covid-19 vaccines in Bangladesh.

The government on April 29 approved the emergency use of Sinopharm, a Chinese Covid-19 vaccine, a day after approving the emergency use of Sputnik V vaccine of Russia.

“We’ll get 5 lakh doses of the Chinese vaccine as gift within 7-10 days. Then we’ll start distribution. Then the government will start buying those on G2G basis,” Mahbubur Rahman, Director General of DGDA told reporters.

Incepta Pharmaceuticals, Popular Pharma and Health Care Pharma have the capacity of producing vaccines, and the Chinese vaccine could be produced locally, Mahbubur Rahman said.

On April 28, Dr Shahida Aktar, additional secretary of the Cabinet Division noted that the government will purchase vaccine technology from Russian and China through direct procurement method (DPM).