Bangladesh on Tuesday crossed the grim milestone of 12,000 coronavirus fatalities, nearly 15 months after reporting the first death in March last year.

With 33 latest fatalities in 24 hours until morning, the death tally soared to 12,005.

The country has been seeing below 60 daily deaths for a week after recording over 100 fatalities on several occasions last month.

However, the mortality rate rose to 1.55 percent after staying at 1.54 for four days, according to a handout of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).

Besides, 1,230 new cases were detected after testing of 14,184 samples, pushing up the caseload to 776,257. Bangladesh has so far carried out 5,661,926 tests.

The daily infection rate fell slightly to 8.67 percent from Monday’s 8.99 percent.

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After a massive upsurge in April, the number of daily cases fell below 2,000 since May 1.

However, the number of tests, as well as new cases, has declined from May 4, according to corona.gov.bd.

DGHS said 3,044 patients recovered in the past 24 hours, taking the recovery rate to 92.15 percent.

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

Dhaka worst-hit region

Dhaka has remained the worst-hit division, recording 6,956 fatalities or 57.94 percent of the total deaths until now.

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Nineteen of the 33 deaths recorded today are from Dhaka and seven from Chattogram.

There are now 800 ICU beds and 9,796 general hospital beds available across the country.

Extended lockdown

The lockdown imposed on April 4 to contain the spread of coronavirus has been extended till May 16 as the government continues to discourage people from travelling to their village homes.

Officials of all government, semi-government autonomous and private organisations, banks and financial institutions have been asked to remain at their respective workstations during the upcoming Eid-ul-Fitr holidays.

Inter-district transport services have remained closed while intra-district transport services were allowed to operate ensuring health guidelines. Launch and train services remain off.

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But the restrictions could not deter people from travelling to their village homes ignoring health risks.

Vaccination drive

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

The government 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 has remained suspended since April 26. Also, 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 timely arrival of shipments from India.

In the last 24 hours, 10 people have received the first dose of the vaccine while 97,337 have received the second dose, said the health directorate.

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Vaccine expected from China, US

Chinese Ambassador to Bangladesh Li Jiming has officially announced that 500,000 doses of Sinopharm vaccine will reach Bangladesh on May 12 as a “special gift”.

Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen has recently written to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken seeking vaccine doses for immediate and long-term needs.

The government has sought immediate release of 2-4 million doses from the US and a total of 10 to 20 million doses of vaccine for the long-term supply.