Bangladesh on Wednesday reported 77 more coronavirus-related deaths and 2,955 new cases as the country grapples with the 2nd  wave of the virus.

The daily infection rate dropped to 10.48 percent from Tuesday’s 12.51 percent but the mortality rate rose to 1.50 percent.

So far 754,614 cases and 11,305 deaths have been recorded, the Directorate General of Health Services said in a handout.

The number of recoveries now stands at 672,319 including 5392 new cases. This means, 89.09  percent of the patients have recovered.

Bangladesh has so far tested 5,423,730 samples, including 28,206 in the last 24 hours.

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

Also read: Bangladesh approves local production of Russian, Chinese Covid vaccines

Deaths, cases soar in April

In the last 28 days, Bangladesh has seen 2,259 Coronavirus-related deaths and 19,371 new cases, making it the most fatal month since the outbreak began last year.

The virus claimed 568 lives in January this year, 281 in February and 638 in March.

Dhaka division remains the worst-hit region, registering most of the deaths – 6,610 or 58.47 percent.

Forty-six of the 77 deaths reported today are from Dhaka division and nine from Chattogram division.

Lockdown extended

The surge in Covid infections prompted the government to go for a lockdown from early April. Having failed to achieve the intended result, it imposed a strict lockdown from April 11 and extended it to April 28.

Also read: Bangladesh extends lockdown until May 5

On Wednesday, the government issued a circular extending  the lockdown till May 5, as there is no improvement of the Covid-19 situation

However, shopping malls will remain open from 10am to 8pm during the extended period, he said.

Bangladesh shuts border with India

Bangladesh has closed its border with India for any kind of movement except that of cargoes for the next 14 days from Monday as the coronavirus situation in the neighbouring country goes out of control.

Recorded number of daily cases put unprecedented pressure on the hospitals and drained the oxygen supply, leading to many preventable deaths.

Vaccination

Bangladesh launched a vaccination drive on February 7 with Oxford-AstraZeneca doses it purchased from the Serum Institute of India Pvt Ltd.

Also read: Bangladesh, China, others call for avoiding vaccine nationalism

Bangladesh signed an agreement with Serum for 30 million doses. But a record number of cases in India has made the delivery of the doses uncertain.

The administering of the first dose remained suspended from Monday.

DGHS DG Prof ABM Khurshid Alam assured that Bangladesh will get 2.1 million doses of vaccine by the first week of May.

Vaccine production in Bangladesh

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on Wednesday approved in principle a proposal for producing Russian and Chinese Covid-19 vaccines in Bangladesh.

“The cabinet body has approved in principle the Health Ministry’s proposal to facilitate the production of Russian and Chinese vaccines,” said Dr Shahida Aktar, additional secretary of the Cabinet Division, while briefing reporters after the meeting.

Also read: Obaidul Quader: Covid vaccines to be collected, no matter what

She noted that the government will purchase vaccine technology from Russian and China through direct procurement method (DPM) which means the Health Ministry will not require to follow any competitive bidding princess.

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal presided over the virtual meeting where the proposal was placed by the Health Ministry on an emergency basis.