Bangladesh recorded 52 Coronavirus-related deaths in the last 24 hours till Wednesday, the highest single-day death toll in seven months.

Besides, the country’s health authorities recorded over 5,000 fresh cases for the third straight day.

The latest figures showed 5,358 new cases in a 24-hour period until morning, which pushed up the caseload to 611,295, according to a handout issued by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).

This is the highest number of infections in a single day since the pandemic began.

Besides, the coronavirus fatalities reached 9,046 with the new deaths.

Also read:Covid-19 in Bangladesh: Daily death toll, new cases rise

Bangladesh reported its first coronavirus cases on March 8 last year and the first death on the 18th of that month.

The DGHS said the infection rate jumped to 19.90 percent from 18.94 percent on Tuesday while the mortality rate remained static at 1.48 percent.

During the period, 2,219 coronavirus patients recovered, taking the total number of recoveries to 542,399.

So far, 4,670,576 samples have been tested, including 26,931 in the last 24 hours, the DGHS said.

Among the deceased, 34 people died in Dhaka division, nine in Chattogram, three each in Rajshahi, Khulna, two in Sylhet and one in Rangpur divisions.

Also read:Covid-19 in Bangladesh: 10 more deaths push up toll to 8,451

So far, 5,152 coronavirus patients died in Dhaka division, 1,640 in Chattogram, 504 in Rajshahi, 582 in Khulna, 273 in Barishal, 320 in Sylhet, 374 in Rangpur and 201 in Mymensingh divisions.

Govt strengthens protective steps

The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) issued an 18-point directive on Monday for the next two weeks to contain the spread of coronavirus.

On the same day, Health Ministry also proposed partial lockdowns for some places with higher Covid-19 transmission rates.

Other recommendations by the Health Ministry include closure of amusement centres, picnic spots, religious gatherings, limiting wedding ceremonies, strengthening quarantine systems, limiting passengers in public transports, and limiting attendance in offices.

It also suggested strong enforcement of the ‘no mask no service’ policy, increasing numbers of mobile courts and slapping fines on health guideline violators.

Also read:No risk of contracting Covid-19 due to vaccination: DGHS

Vaccination drive

The government rolled out a countrywide mass vaccination campaign on February 7 with doses received from the Serum Institute of India.

Bangladesh inked an agreement with Serum in December last year for 30 million doses to be supplied between January and June this year – 5 million each month.

Global situation 

The Covid situation is worsening around the world with every passing day. In fact, the overall number of corona cases has now surpassed 128 million.

While the total case count reached 128,144,389, the death toll from the virus mounted to 2,802,066 on Wednesday morning, according to Johns Hopkins University.