After recording over 100 daily Covid-19 deaths for four consecutive days, Bangladesh registered 91 more fatalities in 24 hours till Tuesday morning, showing a little bit of fall in the death toll.

Besides, 4,559 people got infected by the deadly virus during the period, said a handout of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).

Also read:No risk of contracting Covid-19 due to vaccination: DGHS

On Monday, the country had broken all the previous records of Covid-19 deaths registering 112 fatalities.

The latest figure pushed up the death tally to 10,588 with a mortality rate of 1.45 percent.

The fresh Covid-19 cases were reported after testing 27,056 samples. The infection rate dropped to 16.85 percent from 17.68 percent on Monday, the handout said.

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

Health authorities have so far confirmed 727,780 cases. Among them, 628,111 people - 86.31 percent of all patients – have recovered.

The virus claimed 568 lives in January this year, 281 in February and 638 in March.

Lockdown

A ‘strict’ lockdown is underway across the country at the moment but people still seem apathetic towards health guidelines and safety rules.

The government has extended the ongoing lockdown by another week from April 22 in an effort to bring the situation under control. 

Cause of concern

Concerns about the spread of more contagious and deadlier variants of the virus were raised by experts.

Research by the icddr,b has found that the South African variant accounted for 81 percent of the positive cases in Dhaka since the third week of March this year.

 

That is not good news for Bangladesh because the country has managed to procure only the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine which offers as little as 10 percent protection against the South African variant, researchers suggested.

Dhaka still the worst-hit region

Dhaka division remains the worst-hit region of the country since the start of the pandemic.

Sixty of the 91 deaths reported today are from Dhaka division while 17 from Chatogram and three from Rajshhai divisions.

Among the total deceased, 6179 died in Dhaka division so far which is 58 percent of the total fatalities.

Vaccination efforts

A countrywide vaccination drive, launched on Feb 7, is underway.

Also read:Covid-19 vaccine not a 'silver bullet': WHO

Bangladesh is receiving vaccine jabs from India as the country signed an agreement with the Serum Institute of India Pvt Ltd for 30 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

So far, 57,29,147 people have received the first dose and 15,07,287 have got their second jab, according to official figures.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh's vaccine supplier India has shifted from being a mass vaccine exporter to a major importer after the country saw a record number of daily cases.

Although Bangladesh is yet to receive its March consignment of 5 million doses, Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen said they will arrive as promised by India.

Bed crisis in hospitals

Hospitals are now grappling to accommodate the increasing number of patients and are running low on beds and oxygen.

There are 12,139 general beds for Covid-19 patients and 5,759 of them are currently occupied.

Overall, there are 1,005 ICU beds across the country and only 243 are available, the DGHS said.

A 1,000-bed Covid-19 hospital at Dhaka North City Corporation's Mohakhali market was opened on April 18 in an attempt to increase the number of hospital beds.

The dedicated hospital has a 212-bed ICU, 250-bed high dependency unit, an emergency unit with 50 beds, and 438 isolated high care rooms for patients.