Bangladesh reported 237 Covid-19 related deaths as health authorities came up with their 24-hour report on Wednesday, a figure that shows how bad the situation is in the country.   

On August 5, the country reported 264 deaths shattering its previous single-day record of 258 Covid-related deaths on July 27 and it was repeated on August 10 when the country logged 268 deaths.   

Besides, 10,420 more people came out Covid positive during the period after testing 44,430 samples, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).   

The fresh numbers pushed Bangladesh’s total fatality to 23,398 and total cases to 1,386,782.

The case positivity rate during the 24-hour period fell a little to 23.45 % from Tuesday’s 23.58 %, while the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends a 5% or below rate.
 
The recovery rate, however, rose to 90% from 89.71%, with the recovery of 13,313 people during the period, said the DGHS.

However, the case fatality rose to 1.69 % during the period after remaining static at 1.68 % for a few days.

Deaths in Dhaka division crossed 100 on a single day with 105 people dying of Covid-19 during the 24-hour period.

Besides, 54 people died in Chattogram, 23 in Sylhet, 20 in Khulna, 11 in Mymensingh, 10 in Rajshahi, eight in Barishal and 6 died in Rangpur divisions.

Read: Vaccination drive in Bangladesh: Procurement of 60 mln Sinopharm doses gets nod

Among them, 134 were men and 103 were women.

Of them, one was under 10 years of age, two were between 11-20, four were within 21-30, 14 between 31-40, 24 between 41-50, 46 between 51-60 and 146 were above 60 years of age,  the DGHS added.

Chaos at vaccination centres

Vaccination centres across the country drew huge crowds on the 5th day of the mass vaccination drive, creating a chaotic situation everywhere and raising the risk of the virus transmission.

After a reality check at different vaccination centers, UNB correspondents saw long queues of people standing close to each other with little or no regard to social distancing rules.

Hundreds of jab-seekers, both male and female, turned up at the small vaccination centres with or without online registrations, overwhelming its medical staff.

The medical staff at the vaccination centres and the vaccine aspirants pointed fingers at each other because of mismanagement and slow pace of vaccination.  

According to the UNB correspondents, the number of staff was too inadequate to smoothly vaccinate such a huge number of people.

As the ruthless Delta variant of Covid-19 keeps spreading like wildfire, Bangladesh on Saturday kicked off another phase of its mass vaccination drive aimed at inoculating 35 lakh people in six days.

However, the drive has not been free of controversies as mismanagement and anomalies across the country became a topic of discussions in the last few days.

Read: Frustration grows as chaos continues at Bangladesh’s vaccination centres

UNB Chattogram correspondent reports that a huge crowd was seen at the vaccine centres in the city on Wednesday

The vaccine seekers were seen waiting in front of the vaccination centres in long queues amid rain, causing immense sufferings to the people standing there for taking covid jabs.

According to the District Civil Surgeon office, some 10 people die of Covid-19 in the city on average every day while 800-900 are being infected.

During a recent visit to some vaccine centres, the UNB correspondent found hundreds of people waiting in front of Chattogram City Corporation General Hospital centre in Sadarghat area of the port city.

Rahim Sobahan, a 57-year-old man, said, “He had been standing in a queue since 8 am and got the chance to enter the vaccine centre around 11 am.”

The same scenario was seen in the city's Bandar, EPZ, Patenga, Halishahor vaccination centres.

Hazera Begum, another vaccine aspirant, said “The vaccine centre is overcrowded and I can’t understand whether I came here to secure myself from Covid or being infected with Covid.”