Covid-19 claimed 31 more Covid deaths, including 10 each in Dhaka and Chattogram divisions, in the past 24 hours till Friday morning, pushing up the country's fatalities to 12,511.
Also, 1,358 people came out positive in 14,606 tests carried out during the same period, taking the country's caseload to 796,343.
The daily positivity rate rose to 9.30% from Thursday's 8.12%, said the Directorate General of Health Services.
Read: COVID-19: Bangladesh to receive over 1 lakh Pfizer vaccine on Sunday
The fatality rate remained static at 1.57% and the recovery rate stood at 92.45%.
The country has carried out 5,901,874 sample tests so far after reporting its first cases on March 8 last year and the first death on the 18th of the month.
Vaccination drive
The administration of the first doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine has remained suspended in Bangladesh since April 26.
Also, the country, the prime recipient of Oxford-AstraZeneca shots, has suspended the registration for Covid-19 jabs due to vaccine shortage amid a delay in the timely arrival of shipments from India.
However, recently two other vaccines, Russia's Sputnik V and China's Sinopharm, got approval from the Directorate General of Drug Administration (DGDA) for emergency use in Bangladesh.
Read:Cabinet body okays proposal to procure 1.5 crore Chinese Sinopharm vaccine
The administering of the first doses of the Sinopharm vaccine started Tuesday.
Bangladesh launched its vaccination drive on February 7 with Oxford-AstraZeneca doses bought from India's Serum Institute.
Bangladesh to receive 1 lakh-plus Pfizer vaccine Sunday
A flight of Qatar Airlines carrying a consignment of 100,620 doses of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine will arrive in Bangladesh Sunday.
On Thursday, Bangladesh approved the emergency use of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine.
Cabinet body okays procurement of 1.5 crore Sinopharm vaccine
The Cabinet Committee on Public Purchase Thursday gave final approval to a proposal of the health ministry to procure 1.5 crore Chinese Sinofarm Covid-19 vaccine.
As per the approval, the Health Services Division will procure a 1.5 crore vaccine in the next three months – June, July and August.
Read: Bangladesh approves emergency use of Pfizer vaccine
"Each month 5 million doses of vaccine will be imported from the Chinese firm," Dr Shahida Aktar, additional secretary to the Cabinet Division, told reporters.
Covid vaccination to get priority in budget FY22
A massive vaccination of the population for protection against Covid-19 infection will be the major focus of the Tk602,880 crore budget of the fiscal year 2021-2022. There will be a Tk10,000 crore special allocation for facing the impacts of Covid-19.
Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal will place the budget in Parliament on June 3.
'Bangladesh to see worst Covid outbreak by June-end'
With Covid cases keep soaring in frontier districts apparently because of the highly contagious Indian variant, experts fear that Bangladesh may face the worst outbreak of Covid-19 at the end of June next.
They said if the Indian variant can make its way into other areas from the bordering districts, Bangladesh is likely to witness more than 20,000 daily cases in early July, raising the fatality rate sharply.
Read: Bangladesh braces for worst Covid outbreak by June-end: Experts
Lack of necessary oxygen supply and other healthcare facilities may aggravate the situation, according to the experts.
They suggested putting the frontier districts, particularly where the virus infection rate has already gone up, under strict lockdowns like Chapainawabganj and halting inter-district public transport services to contain the virus locally.