The second wave of Covid-19 in Bangladesh is getting much deadlier with 153 more people losing lives to the virus in 24 hours till Sunday morning, pushing up the total death toll to 15,065.
With this, the daily-death record was shattered thrice in the country within eight days as 143 deaths were reported on July1 and 119 on June 27.
During the period, 8,661 more Covid cases were detected after testing 29,879 samples, overwhelming the country’s healthcare system quickly.
This raises the country's case positivity rate during the period to 28.99% from Saturday’s 27.39%, according to a handout provided by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
However, the fatality rate remained static at 1.59%
With the fresh cases, Bangladesh’s caseload mounted to 944,917 today, said the DGHS.
So far, 833,897 people have recovered from the virus infections, putting the recovery rate at 88.25%.
Khulna division today recorded 51 deaths while Dhaka saw 46. Besides, 15 people each in Chattogram and Rangpur, 12 in Rajshahi, nine in Mymensingh, three in Barishal and two in Sylhet divisions died of Covid-19 today.
The country saw 2,404 Covid deaths in April, 1,169 in May and 1,884 in June, marking those 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: Khulna logs record 46 single-day Covid deaths
Herd immunity unlikely anytime soon
Although its study suggests around 71 percent of Dhaka city dwellers have already gained antibodies for coronavirus, an icddr,b scientist says herd immunity threshold is still out of reach in Bangladesh’s capital, let alone the whole country to reach it.
Dr Rubhana Raqib, a senior scientist at the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b), also says it may not be possible to attain the long-term herd immunity for Covid-19 as long as the virus continues to mutate as she thinks highly contagious new variants can break people’s immune protection gained either from the previous infections or vaccination.
In a recent interview with UNB, she also said it is generally assumed that Covid-19 may remain active like influenza and other flues for a long time and it is quite possible that people will need to receive the vaccine at a regular interval until the virus loses its mutation or virulence capability.
icddr,b conducted a study titled “Driving Factors of Covid-19 in Slums and Non-Slum Areas of Dhaka and Chittagong,” between October 2020 and February 2021 to evaluate the extent of the spread of the virus in the slum and non-slum communities of the two cities.