Covid-19 in Bangladesh continued its relentless havoc as the country saw 241 more deaths and 10,299 new cases in 24 hours till Sunday morning.

The fresh numbers took the country’s total fatality to 22,652 and the total caseload to 1,353,695, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).

The new cases were detected after testing 42,003 samples which lowered the country’s case positivity rate to 24.52% from Saturday’s 25.65%.

The country overwhelmed by the Delta variant Covid surge has been seeing over 200 deaths daily since July 25 while over 13,000 cases daily on average for a week.

However, the case fatality rate remained unchanged at 1.67% during the period, said the DGHS.

Besides, the recovery rate rose to 89.05% from 88.89 % with 16,627 new patients recovering from Covid-19 during this time.

Of the recent deaths, 105 people died in Dhaka alone, the highest ever in the division.

Deaths in Bangladesh’s capital on a single day crossed the grim landmark of 100 for the first time on Saturday with 101 deaths.

Read: Govt eases lockdown from Aug 11 with some guidelines to follow

Besides, 59 people died in Chattogram division, 30 in Khulna, 12 each in Rajshahi and Barishal, 10 in Rangpur, seven in Sylhet and six died in Mymensingh.

Of them, 128 were men and 113 women.

As per their age breakup, one was below 10 years, one between 11-20, nine between 21-30, 17 between 31-40, 28 between 41-50, 54 between 51-60, 70 between 61-70, 49 between 71-80, nine between 81-90 and three were between 91-100 years of age.

Eased lockdown from Aug 11

Amid the Covid-19 wracking havoc, the government has decided to ease the ongoing nationwide lockdown from August 11 with a few guidelines to follow in different sectors and people’s movement and gatherings.

The Cabinet Division issued a notification in this regard Sunday saying that some restrictions imposed during the lockdown will be lifted following the decision taken in an inter-ministerial meeting held on August 3.

From August 11, all the government, private offices and banks will be opened following the health guidelines, said the notification issued on Sunday.

It said Bangladesh Supreme Court will issue necessary directives about the courts.

Read: Lockdown or no lockdown, life is the same in Dhaka

Road, railways and river transports will be allowed to carry passengers in full passenger capacity. However, in regard to road transports local administrations (Divisional Commissioners and Deputy Commissioners) are allowed to order half of the public transport to move every day after consulting with the relevant authorities and law enforcement forces.

Shopping malls, markets and shops will be allowed to keep open from 10 am to 8pm following the health guidelines while hotels, restaurants can keep open from 8am to 10 pm keeping half their seats empty.

Besides, all the factories will remain open after August 11.  

Concerned authorities will be responsible for any negligence in maintaining the health guidelines in public transports, offices, markets and legal actions will be taken against them, said the notification.

Bangladesh has been under a lockdown since July 23 barring people from leaving their homes except for essential reasons.