Bangladesh is currently seeing the most alarming spike since confirming its first cases in March last year, as over 100 deaths were reported at a stretch for a week until Saturday.

As of Saturday morning, 134 more people died of the virus in 24 hours till Saturday morning while 6,124 new cases were reported, according to a handout issued by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).

The number of daily deaths remained above 100 after logging 119 deaths on June 27, and the country also saw the highest 143 deaths on thursday.

With the new numbers, the country’s death toll now stands at 14,912 while the caseload at 936,256.

The case positivity rate today fell to 27.39% from Friday’s 28% after testing 22,687 samples during the period, said the DGHS handout.

However, the country's fatality rate remained static at 1.59% during the period.

Also read: Bangladesh unlikely to reach Covid herd immunity anytime soon: Expert

So far, 829,199 people have recovered from the disease putting the country’s recovery rate at 88.57 %, which has been on the wane for more than two weeks now.

Thirty-nine of the deaths were reported in Khulna division today, while Dhaka saw 38 deaths.

Besides, 23 people died in Rajshahi, 15 in Rangpur, 11 in Chattogram, four in Mymensingh, three in Barishal and one in Sylhet divisions.

The country saw 2,404 Covid deaths in April, 1,169 in May and 1,884 in June marking the most fatal months of this year.

Also, July was the most fatal month of 2020, reporting 1,264 deaths followed by 1,197 deaths in June that year.

Also read: Covid swallowing people in Bangladesh; 132 more die

Lockdown and arrests in Dhaka

The complete lockdown in Bangladesh came into effect on Thursday morning to mitigate the spread of Coronavirus, which will continue till July 7 midnight.

Army personnel started patrolling the streets of Dhaka and other parts across the country in aid of the civil administration as the government scrambles to bring the Covid-19 situation under control.

Police have set up barricades and check-posts at all important points to monitor the movement of vehicles as well as people.

On the third day of the strictly-enforced lockdown, police arrested 621 people for being on the streets in capital Dhaka in violation of lockdown rules Saturday.

The arrestees were picked up while roaming in different parts of the city, said Additional Deputy Commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police Iftekharul Islam.

He said an amount of Tk 19,22,350 was collected in penalties from vehicles across the capital under the Road Transport Act.