As Coronavirus-related deaths and infections keep growing in Bangladesh again, the country recorded 43 more deaths in the past 24 hours till Saturday morning.

Besides, 1,447 new cases were registered during the period, taking the country's caseload to 809,314.

With the latest death toll, the total number of fatalities rose to 12,801.

The daily infection rate climbed to 11.03% from Friday's 10.40% while the mortality rate remained static at 1.58%, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS). 

The new cases were detected after testing 13,115 samples.

Dhaka and Rajshahi divisions saw the highest fatalities during the period with 12 deaths each while Chattogram division witnessed eight deaths, Khulna five, Rangpur three, Mymensingh two and Sylhet one.

Of the deceased, 30 were men while 13 women.

Of them, one was below 10 years, one in his 20s, five are 30 years old, two of 40, 13 are of 50 old and 21 are above 60 years.

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However, 749,425 patients have recovered so far, keeping the country’s recovery rate at 92.60%. 

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

What’s test positivity?

The Covid-19 positivity rate indicates, among other things, the number of people showing clinical features of the disease or the percentage of individuals suffering from the disease. Such estimation has two errors, said Dr AM Zakir Hussain, former director of the Institute of Epidemiology Disease Control and Research.  

"One, an RT-PCR test, based on the present method of sample collection, misses about one-third of the actual cases. Two, when more than 20 cycles of diagnostic procedures are repeated even a single virus in a sample would show a positive result, which, however, will not indicate that the person who gave the sample will transmit the infection to others or that they will come down with the disease. An RT-PCR test shows positive results even when the virus is dead," he added.

Lockdown in districts

Due to the recent rise in Covid infections in frontier districts, district administrations have imposed lockdowns in Rajshahi, Khulna, Satkhira, Chapainawabganj, Teknaf upazila, five Rohingya camps and parts of Naogaon, Noakhali districts to curb the transmission of the virus.  

The district administrations have been given the authority to enforce lockdowns in their areas if the Covid-19 situation worsens.  

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Vaccination drive  

Bangladesh launched its vaccination drive on February 7 with Oxford-AstraZeneca doses bought from India's Serum Institute.

So far, four vaccines – Oxford-AstraZeneca (Covishield), Sputnik-V, Sinopharm, and Pfizer-BioNTech – have got the authorisation for emergency use in the country.

Meanwhile, seven million doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca Covishield vaccine reached Bangladesh, and the governments of India and China gave 3.2 million doses and 500,000 doses of coronavirus vaccine as gifts.

However, the country, the prime recipient of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines, has suspended the registration for Covid-19 jabs due to vaccine shortage amid a delay in the arrival of shipments from India.

Vaccination target

With a plan to bring 80% of people of the country under the mass immunisation programme in phases, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal on Thursday said the government will vaccinate 2.5 million people each month.

He came up with the announcement while proposing the national budget for FY 2021-22 in parliament.  

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"Plans have been formulated to vaccinate 80% of people in phases. In the first phase, people with risks will be vaccinated and 2.5 million vaccines will be given each month," the minister said.  

"The government procured 30 million doses of Covishield vaccine of Oxford-AstraZeneca from the Serum Institute of India. Besides, 68 million doses will be available from the Covax facility under the World Health Organization for 20% of our population, that is, for 34 million people.

"Out of these, 106,000 doses have already been received," he said.

The finance minister said the World Bank provided $500 million for procuring vaccines and $14.87 million for logistic support. “Loan agreement for $940 million with the ADB to procure Covid vaccine is at the final stage. Alongside, there is a good possibility to receive support for vaccine procurement from the European Investment Bank and AIIB."