As Dhaka has started experiencing rains with the arrival of monsoon, the air quality in the capital improved significantly as it ranked the 15th worst polluted city in the world in the Air Quality Index (AQI) on Sunday morning.

The air in Dhaka was categorised as ‘moderate’ in the morning as the capital city had an AQI score of 76 at 09:50am.

When the AQI remains in between 51 and 100, the air quality is acceptable. However, there may be a risk for some people, particularly those who are unusually sensitive to air pollution.

United Arab Emirates’ Dubai, USA’s New York City and South Africa’s Johannesburg occupied the first three spots in the list of cities with the worst air quality with AQI scores of 152, 142 and 1132 respectively.

The AQI, an index for reporting daily air quality, informs people how clean or polluted the air of a certain city is, and what associated health effects might be a concern for them.

Read Also: Dhaka’s air quality improves significantly

In Bangladesh, the AQI is based on five criteria pollutants – Particulate Matter (PM10 and PM2.5), NO2, CO, SO2, and Ozone (O3).

Bangladesh has a subtropical monsoon climate characterized by wide seasonal variations in rainfall, high temperatures and humidity.

Generally, Dhaka’s air starts getting fresh when rain starts from mid-June. The air remains mostly acceptable during monsoon from June to October.

The global Covid-19 confirmed cases reached 11,239,378 on Sunday morning while deaths from the disease topped 530,110, according to the Centre for System Science and Engineering of the Johns Hopkins University (JHU).  
 
According to JHU data, Brazil has come up to the second position after the US with 1,577,004 cases and 64,265 deaths as of Sunday.

Meanwhile, Russia has counted the third highest Covid-19 cases- 673,564 till date

while India come down to the fourth position after Russia with 648,315 Covid-19 cases. The country has so far reported 18,655 deaths.

Among the countries, the US has been the worst-hit with the highest recorded deaths of 129,973 patients and about 2,838,678 confirmed cases.

Read Also: Bangladesh now 8th in global weekly increase in Covid-19 cases: WHO

In the US, New York State alone counted 32,157 deaths till date.

Millions of people came out of home after over three months in England as lockdown restrictions were eased.  Several other European countries have done so.

Coronavirus cases were first reported in China in December last year.
 
The World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the coronavirus crisis a pandemic on March 11.
 
Situation in Bangladesh

According to JHU, Bangladesh has reached the  18th position from the number of confirmed coronavirus cases as of Sunday.

Bangladesh confirmed its first cases on March 8 and the first death on March 18 but it has been seeing a sharp rise in both new cases and deaths in recent weeks.
 
The country’s health authorities on Saturday reported 3,288 new coronavirus cases and 42 deaths in the last 24 hours until the morning.

The country has so far reported 159,679 coronavirus cases and 1,997 deaths.

Earlier on Friday, Bangladesh ranked 8th globally, with 26,598 new Covid-19 cases in the last seven days, according to WHO.

Read Also: Coronavirus: Bangladesh sees lowest daily death since June 1, 3,288 new cases

A local journalist has mercilessly been hacked allegedly by followers of a local Union Parishad Chairman at his residence at Kajiatal village in Cumilla’s Muradnagar upazila on Saturday.

Shariful Alam Chowdhury is a correspondent of Daily Samakal and general secretary of Muradnagar Press Club.

The assailants did not even spare his elderly parents from the attack when they tried to save their son. They both received injuries.

Abdul Matin Chowdhury, the father and also a valiant freedom fighter, said the attack was carried out in retaliation of a report that his son wrote uncovering corruption, irregularities and nepotism of Darora Union Parishad Chairman Shahjahan.

On Saturday noon, a number of goons patronized by the UP chairman came to the house, dragged Shariful out to the yard and hacked him brutally with sharp weapons. They also beat him with iron pipes and hammers.

The father said when he and Sharif’s mother tried to restrain the attackers, they also received the same treatment.

Contacted, AKM Manjur Alam, officer-in-charge of Muradnagar Police Station, said they on information went to the spot, rescued the journalist and sent him to hospital.

“We’ve immediately arrested Chairman Shahjahan after Sharif’s father filed a case over the incident,” he said, adding that they are trying to arrest the other accused.

The Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) authorities on Saturday started the second spell of their mosquito prevention drive in different areas. 

DNCC Mayor Atiqul Islam held an online conference with the participation of concerned officials and directed them to expedite the drive on the previous night.

Also read: DNCC to launch anti-mosquito special drive Saturday: DNCC mayor

On the first day of the 10-day spell, the officials began the drive simultaneously in all 54 wards and found mosquito larvae at 91 establishments.

During the drive, 12 cases were filed and the responsible house owners were slapped with Tk 1,55,000 in fine.

The first spell of the drive was conducted from June 6 to 15.

Also read: DNCC operates anti-mosquito drive at 34 hospitals

British-Bangladeshi doctor Farzana Hussain has been featured on a billboard in the United Kingdom by the National Health Service on its founding anniversary.

NHS is celebrating its founding anniversary on July 5 at a time when the country as well as the entire world is grappling with the coronavirus pandemic.

NHS has posted a photo on its official twitter handle showing Dr Farzana on a billboard and said: “Dr Farzana Hussain is one of the NHS staff photographed by @rankinphoto to mark the NHS’ birthday, and to honour the vital role that frontline staff have played during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

About Dr Farzana, the British High Commission in Dhaka said on Twitter that she is a British Bangladeshi General Practitioner and GP of the year 2019 in the General Practice Awards.