Covid-19 claimed 32 more lives in Bangladesh in the last 24 hours until Monday morning, raising the number of fatalities to 12,181.
Besides, health authorities found 698 more people positive over the same period after testing 10,347 samples.
With the latest figure, the total number of positive cases in the country climbed to 780,857, according to a handout of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) .
The mortality rate now stands 1.56 % while the rate of positivity is 6.75 %, it said.
The country has been seeing bellow 50 daily deaths from May 9 and the number stayed mostly below 60 from the beginning of May.
The country experienced a surge in Covid-19 cases in April, recording its highest single-day cases of 7,626 on April 7. It witnessed over 100 deaths during April 16-19 and on April 25.
The total number of recoveries rose to 7, 23,094 with 1058 patients got cured of the disease in the 24 hours taking the rate of recoveries to 92.60 %.
The country has so far tested 5,718,063 samples since reporting the first Covid-19 cases on March 8 last year and the first death from the virus on the 18th of the month.
Dhaka worst hit region with 7,041 deaths
Dhaka remained the worst hit region by the coronavirus logging 7,041 fatalities until now, which is 57.80% of the total deaths.
Twenty-one of the 32 deaths recorded today are from Dhaka division and 2 are from Chattogram.
Chattogram is the second worst hit region of the country recording 2,277 deaths.
Second dose of vaccine to run out soon
The 2nd dose of Covid-19 vaccine will run out within seven to ten days, said Health Minister Zahid Maleque on Monday.
Five lakh doses of Covid-19 vaccine, donated by the Chinese government to Bangladesh, arrived in Dhaka on last Wednesday.
The vaccine will be given to those on priority basis who need it most, said the Minister today.
Administering of Chinese Covid-19 vaccine will begin on May 25/26, said the Health Minister.
“We have taken some initiatives. We talked to the US, China Russia and the UK and some progress has been made. Hopefully you will get good news soon. As per contacts, we have got only 70 lakhs of doses out of 3 crores. We are also worried about the 2nd dose of vaccine like you,” he added.
The United States has said it is actively considering the request made by the Bangladesh government over the supply of Covid-19 vaccine doses to meet Bangladesh’s immediate needs.
Bangladesh will get a reply of the letter, sent to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken by Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen, within the next couple of days, said State Minister for Foreign Affairs M Shahriar Alam today after his meeting with US Ambassador to Bangladesh Earl Miller.
Also read:Administering of Chinese Covid-19 vaccine to begin on May 25/26: Health Minister
Vaccination drive
Bangladesh launched its vaccination drive on February 7 with Oxford-AstraZeneca doses purchased from India's Serum Institute.
The government signed an agreement with Serum for 30 million doses. But a record number of cases in India has made the delivery of the doses uncertain.
The administering of the first dose has 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.
In the last 24 hours, 10 people have received the first dose of the vaccine while 56,940 have received the second dose, said the health directorate.