Though the coronavirus pandemic has eased in Bangladesh, it killed eight more people and infected 166 others in 24 hours till Saturday morning.

The daily-case positivity rate declined to 1.25 per cent from Friday’s 1.71 per cent.

The fresh cases were detected after testing 13,240 samples, said the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).

With the fresh numbers, the Covid-19 fatalities reached 27,862 while the caseload climbed to 1,569,328, according to DGHS.

Read: Vaccination campaign for school students to begin on Nov 1

Among the deceased, six were men and two were women.

However, the mortality rate rose to 1.78 per cent from Friday’s 1.77 per cent.

Also, the recovery rate stood at 97.69 per cent with the recovery of 181 more patients during the period.

Mass vaccination

Bangladesh on Thursday launched the second phase of its special nationwide mass vaccination drive, aiming to vaccinate 80 lakh people with the second shot in a day.

The 9am to 3pm vaccination drive was part of the special campaign that was first unveiled on September 27 to mark Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's 75th birthday.

On September 28, the first phase of the special nationwide mass vaccination drive was launched.

However, that target to inoculate 80 lakh people was not met in a single day. Across eight divisions, 66,25,123 people were vaccinated, "which is a record number of jabs inoculated in Bangladesh in a single day", the DGHS said.

Besides, 80,93,236 people were vaccinated with the first dose under this campaign, which spilled over to September 29.

Bangladesh on August 7 kicked off its mass vaccination drive to inoculate some 35 lakh people in six days.

Read:Bangladesh kicks off second phase of mass vaccination drive

Vaccination of school students

A new campaign to vaccinate school students, aged 12-17, against Covid-19 will kick off at 12 centers in Dhaka on November 1.

Health Minister Zahid Maleque disclosed this while talking to reporters after the cabinet meeting on Thursday.

Some 40,000 students will be vaccinated every day under the campaign, the minister said.