Bangladesh reported two Covid-related deaths, the lowest this year, and another 214 cases of infections in 24 hours till Monday morning.

On March 18, 2020, Bangladesh logged its first Covid-19 related death.

Besides, the daily-case positivity rate declined to 1.08 per cent from Saturday’s 1.22 per cent.

The fresh cases were detected after testing 19,734 samples, said the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).

With the fresh numbers, the Covid-19 fatalities reached 27,870 while the caseload climbed to 1,569,753, according to the DGHS.

Also read: Covid-19: Bangladesh reports fall in death, rise in case number

Both of the deceased were women today.

On the 43th epidemiological week of pandemic from October 25 to 31, 45 covid-related deaths were reported in the country.

Of them, 39 did not receive any Covid vaccine while six were vaccinated.

Of them, 23 had comorbidities which have declined to 12.5% from the last epidemiological week. Comorbidity means the simultaneous presence of two or more diseases or medical conditions in a patient.

However, the mortality rate remained unchanged at 1.78 per cent.

Also, the recovery rate remained unchanged at 97.70 per cent, which is the highest since the pandemic started its onslaught in the country.

In the 24-hour period, 202 more patients have recovered from the virus infections.

Also read: Vaccination campaign for school children kicks off in Dhaka centres

Student Vaccination

The campaign to vaccinate the school students of the 12-17 age group against Covid-19 began in Dhaka on Monday.

Health Minister Zahid Maleque and Education Minister Dipu Moni inaugurated the vaccination campaign at Motijheel Ideal School and College while the drives in other centres in the city will start on Tuesday.

The vaccination campaign will be conducted at eight centres in the capital although it was scheduled to begin at 12 centres in the city. Other centres did not get approval due to lack of adequate facilities.

The seven other schools are: Hurdco International School, South Point School and College, Chittagong Grammar School, Dhaka, Ideal School and College, Mirpur Commerce College, Kakoli High School and College, South Bridge School and Scholastica School.

“Initially, we’ve started the vaccination programme at eight schools and some 5,000 students will be vaccinated in each centre daily. The students below 12 years won’t be vaccinated now as steps have been taken to bring all the students of 12-17 age group, even the dropped ones, under the campaign,” said the health minister.

“We’ve got 96 lakh doses of Pfizer vaccine while 82 lakh doses are in hand. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said they’ll provide more Pfizer and Moderna vaccines,” he said.

The Pfizer vaccine doses will be given at upazila level as well, he added.

Education Minister Dipu Moni said the full-scale academic activities will resume soon after the successful vaccination of students.

However, the Education Ministry has said there are almost one crore students, aged between 12 to 17, across the country.

Vaccination drive in Bangladesh

So far, 29,237,863 people have been fully vaccinated in the country while 42,154, 848 received the first dose.

On January 27, Prime Minister Hasina launched the Covid-19 vaccination programme at Kurmitola General Hospital through a videoconference.

The government rolled out a countrywide mass Covid-19 vaccination drive on February 7 vaccinating people, aged 55 and above, in the first phase.

On July 29, the government lowered the minimum age limit for taking Covid-19 jabs to 25 from 30 years in a bid to give a boost to the lagging vaccination rates in the country.

Earlier on July 19, the government lowered the age limit from 35 to 30 for vaccine registration.