Bangladesh reported 22 more coronavirus-related deaths in the last 24 hours till Thursday morning, pushing up the country's fatalities to 12,480.

Besides, 1,292 more people were found positive for Covid-19 after testing 15,915 samples during the period.

The daily positivity rate declined to 8.12 percent  from Wednesday’s 9.11 percent, said the Directorate General of Health Services.

Read:AstraZeneca: Govt's desperate efforts yet to yield any good news

Health authorities logged 17 Covid-related deaths on Wednesday, the lowest number in 68 days.The country saw 16 Covid-19 deaths on March 18 last.

The fatality rate remained at 1.57% .

The recovery rate stood at 92.47% as 1,291 people recovered in the last 24 hours. The overall recovery number is 7,35,157 till date.

With the fresh cases, the country’s total caseload reached 7,94,985.

The country has carried out 58,87,268 sample tests since reporting its first cases on March 8 last year and the first death on March 18, 2020.

Vaccination drive update

Bangladesh launched its vaccination drive on February 7 with Oxford-AstraZeneca doses purchased from India's Serum Institute.

The administration of the first dose remained suspended since April 26.

Also, the country, the prime recipient of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines, has suspended the registration for Covid-19 jabs due to vaccine shortage amid a delay in the timely arrival of shipments from India.

However, the administering of the 1st dose of Chinese Sinopharm vaccine against Covid-19 began in Bangladesh on Tuesday.

Cabinet body okays procurement of 1.5 cr Sinopharm vaccine

The Cabinet Committee on Public Purchase on Thursday gave final approval to a proposal of the Health and Family Welfare Ministry to procure 1.5 crore Chinese Sinofarm Covid-19 vaccine.

Read:Cabinet body okays proposal to procure 1.5 crore Chinese Sinopharm vaccine

As per the approval, the Health Services Division of the Health and Family Welfare Ministry will procure a total of 15 million (1.5 crore) vaccine in the next three months—June, July and August.

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal presided over the Cabinet body meeting. 

“Each month 5 million doses of vaccine will be imported from the Chinese firm”, Dr Shahida Aktar, additional secretary to the Cabinet Division, told reporters while briefing on the outcomes of the cabinet body meeting.