The second wave of Covid-19 in Bangladesh is getting much deadlier with 153 more people losing lives to the virus in 24 hours till Sunday morning, pushing up the total death toll to 15,065.

With this, the daily-death record was shattered thrice in the country within eight days as 143 deaths were reported on July1 and 119 on June 27.  

During the period, 8,661 more Covid cases were detected after testing 29,879 samples, overwhelming the country’s healthcare system quickly.  

This raises the country's case positivity rate during the period to 28.99% from Saturday’s 27.39%, according to a handout provided by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).  

However, the fatality rate remained static at 1.59%

With the fresh cases, Bangladesh’s caseload mounted to 944,917 today, said the DGHS.  

So far, 833,897 people have recovered from the virus infections, putting the recovery rate at 88.25%.  

Khulna division today recorded 51 deaths while Dhaka saw 46. Besides, 15 people each in Chattogram and Rangpur, 12 in Rajshahi, nine in Mymensingh, three in Barishal and two in Sylhet divisions died of Covid-19 today.

The country saw 2,404 Covid deaths in April, 1,169 in May and 1,884 in June, marking those the most fatal months of this year.

Also, July was the most fatal month of 2020, reporting 1,264 deaths followed by 1,197 deaths in June that year.

Also read: Khulna logs record 46 single-day Covid deaths

Herd immunity unlikely anytime soon

Although its study suggests around 71 percent of Dhaka city dwellers have already gained antibodies for coronavirus, an icddr,b scientist says herd immunity threshold is still out of reach in Bangladesh’s capital, let alone the whole country to reach it.

Dr Rubhana Raqib, a senior scientist at the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b), also says it may not be possible to attain the long-term herd immunity for Covid-19 as long as the virus continues to mutate as she thinks highly contagious new variants can break people’s immune protection gained either from the previous infections or vaccination.

In a recent interview with UNB, she also said it is generally assumed that Covid-19 may remain active like influenza and other flues for a long time and it is quite possible that people will need to receive the vaccine at a regular interval until the virus loses its mutation or virulence capability.

icddr,b conducted a study titled “Driving Factors of Covid-19 in Slums and Non-Slum Areas of Dhaka and Chittagong,” between October 2020 and February 2021 to evaluate the extent of the spread of the virus in the slum and non-slum communities of the two cities.

As per the findings of the study unveiled on June 22, Covid-19 antibody developed in 71 per cent people in Dhaka and 55 per in Chattogram while the overall 68 per cent of people studied had the coronavirus antibody developed in their blood.  Dr Rubhana Raqib was the principal investigator of the study.

Herd immunity is a concept based on the body's immune resistance to the spread of a deadly disease (bacterial or viral infection) and it can be obtained in two ways -- naturally through infections of the majority of the population and artificially through vaccinating around 80-90 percent of the population of a country.

Also read: Kushtia records its highest Covid daily deaths of 21

Vaccination drive update

The government has so far approved the emergency use of Oxford-AstraZeneca, Sinopharm (China), Sputnik-V (Russia), Pfizer-BioNTech (USA/Germany) and Crona Vac (China) and Janssen single-dose vaccines.

Mass registration process for Covid-19 vaccination is currently suspended in Bangladesh only with an exemption to front line law enforcement forces, medical students and residential students of universities.

Bangladesh is currently administering the doses of Sinopharm vaccine and Pfizer BioNTech vaccine and also the second dose of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.

As of now, 78,748 people received the first dose of China’s Sinopharm vaccine, and 2,237 have received the second dose of it.

Meanwhile, 2,742 people have received the first jab of Pfizer vaccine, including 876 in the past 24 hours.

Of the Astrazeneca vaccine doses, 4,291,707 received the second shot and 5,820,015 the first one so far. 

Lockdown and arrests in Dhaka

The complete lockdown in Bangladesh came into effect on Thursday morning to mitigate the spread of Coronavirus, which will continue till July 7 midnight.

Army personnel are patrolling the streets of Dhaka and elsewhere in the country in aid of the civil administration as the government scrambles to bring the Covid-19 situation under control.  Police have set up barricades and check-posts at all important points to monitor the movement of vehicles as well as people.

On the fourth day of the 7-day strict lockdown, the law enforcers arrested 618 people and fined 496 vehicles for violating the lockdown rules in the capital.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) arrested 618 people roaming on the streets across the capital.

Meanwhile, the mobile court collected Tk 54,450 in fine from 161 people who violated the lockdown rules.

During this time, the Traffic Division realized an amount of Tk 12,81,000 in penalties from the vehicles flouting lockdown rules in different areas of the capital.

Despite a vigilant position by the law enforcers on the fourth day, the number of both people and vehicles was more on the streets than the previous three days.