In a disastrous turn, Bangladesh recorded 201 deaths in 24 hours until Wednesday morning, its highest-ever single-day fatalities.
The first seven days of July have been the deadliest ones in the current pandemic, with the country registering 1,090 deaths during the period as it is struggling with a catastrophic second wave of the virus.
Besides, the country logged 11,162 new cases as the case positivity rate declined slightly to 31.32 % from Tuesday’s 31.46%.
The new numbers took Bangladesh’s death toll to 15, 593 while the caseload to 977,568.
The fresh coronavirus cases were detected after testing 37,147 samples during the period, according to a handout of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
The case fatalities remained unchanged at 1.60% after remaining static at 1.59% for a long time.
Read: Bangladesh hits new grim record with 164 single-day Covid deaths
Bangladesh’s Covid hotspot Khulna continues to be the hardest hit with the district registering the highest number of single-day deaths yet again, 66. Dhaka followed Khulna with 58 deaths during this time.
Besides, 21 people died in Chattogram division, 18 in Rajshahi, 14 in Rangpur, nine in Sylhet, eight in Mymensingh and seven in Barishal divisions.
So far, 850,502 people have recovered from the disease putting the recovery rate at 87%, which is declining unlike other indicators.
Among Wednesday’s 201 deceased, 119 were men and 82 were women.
Of them, 1 belonged to the age group of 11-20, four were within 21-30, nine between 31-40, 25 between 41-50, 47 between 51-60 and 115 were above 60 years old.
Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen on Wednesday said Bangladesh is hopeful of receiving more vaccine doses this month from Japan, the European Union (EU) and the USA under COVAX facility apart from a steady flow of that from China.
Read: Covid getting deadlier in Bangladesh; record-high 153 die in 24 hours
“We’re in a good position now. I should say we’ve made a line up. I think there’ll be no vaccine crisis, and the vaccination programme will continue uninterruptedly,” he told a small group of reporters at his residence.
Dr Momen said Bangladesh is expected to get around 2.5 million doses of vaccine from Japan while 1 million from the EU under the COVAX facility. “These’re likely to be AstraZeneca vaccine doses.”
In another positive turn of events, people will now be able to register for Covid-19 vaccine through imo, according to a press release of the popular messaging app.
The move aims to amplify the mass vaccination efforts of the Bangladesh government, said the press release issued on Wednesday.