As the ruthless Delta variant keeps spreading like wildfire, Bangladesh added 248 fatalities to its national tally Friday, up from 212 logged a week earlier.

The country has been reporting over 200 single-day fatalities for the last two weeks as it races to head off a surge in Covid-19 cases driven by the unrelenting Delta variant.

After weathering the first wave of the virus, Bangladesh's health services are now stretched dangerously thin.

The Covid-19 infections are on the upswing, with 13,771 – 95% of the peak – new cases reported on average each day.

Bangladesh recorded 12,606 new cases on Friday after testing 48,015 samples, down from 13,862 logged a week earlier on July 30.

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The country reported the highest daily Covid-19 fatality of 264 on August 5 and 16,230 infections on July 28.

As more people are falling sick with Covid-19 and dying, hospitals in Dhaka and other cities are running out of beds.

There have been 1,335,260 infections and 22,150 coronavirus-related deaths here since the pandemic began, according to the Directorate General of Health Services.

Meanwhile, the daily test positivity rate fell to 26.25% from July 30's 30.77%, while the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends a 5% or below rate.

However, the recovery rate rose to 87.81%, and the case fatality remained increased to 1.66% compared to the same period.

Read: Chattogram receives 2.6 lakh jabs ahead of vaccination push

As the Delta variant continues to overtax the stretched hospitals, Chattogram division reported the highest 75 deaths, Dhaka 69, Khulna 36, Barishal 20, Rajshahi and Sylhet 16 each, Rangpur and Mymensingh eight each.

So far, Bangladesh has administered at least 14,733,314 doses of Covid vaccines – enough to have vaccinated around 4.3% of the country's population, assuming every person needs two doses.

Delta variant symptoms

There are many variants of SARS-CoV-2 that can cause Covid. Each variant is the result of a random mutation of the original virus.

The main variant of concern now in Bangladesh, and indeed worldwide, is the Delta variant. This variant spreads quicker than the original virus, increasing the number of hospitalisations or deaths.

The variant is believed by the WHO to be 50% more transmissible and might become the dominant form of the virus in the next few months.

Read: China pledges 2 billion vaccines globally through year’s end

Former director of Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research Dr AM Zakir Hussain said, "The Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 is very different in many ways from its earlier variants. It shows symptoms like a mild cold, runny nose and mild fever with head and body aches. The variant's incubation period is four days – one or two days shorter than the earlier variants."

"Delta's rate of multiplication is faster, and volume in the nose is higher. It can directly go to the lungs. The variant's spike is 75% efficient in sticking to its docking site in human host cells in comparison to the Alpha variant's 50%."

"So, the variant causes higher infections, overt manifestations and deaths. Due to similarities with common colds and fevers, patients take a relatively long time to understand if they are suffering from a seasonal cold or not and seek medical attention late. The other reason for high deaths from the variant is the paucity of ICUs. Vaccines are less effective in preventing second or third time infection from the Delta variant," he added.