pandemic
Public universities lagged behind pvt ones in adopting online classes during pandemic: PM
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today (December 12, 2022) said that public universities in Bangladesh lagged behind in adapting to virtual or online class when the government tried to introduce it during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Let me share something regrettable. Our public universities were a bit slow in using the digital system in education during the pandemic period. They were far behind (compared to private universities),” she said.
The Prime Minister said this while attending the inaugural programme of Digital Bangladesh Day 2022.
ICT Division organised the programme at Bangabandhu International Conference Center (BICC) with the theme ‘Advanced Technology Inclusive Development’.
Read more: From ‘Digital Bangladesh’ to ‘Smart Bangladesh’ by 2041, PM announces
Sheikh Hasina said that during the pandemic, public universities expressed reluctance to go for online classes.
“Private universities started that (online classes) quickly. But our public universities (did not), even Dhaka University (did not start promptly),” she said.
She said that after repeated requests, public universities of the country introduced online classes.
“That was the reality. When a system is beneficial to us, why should we not adopt that?” – she questioned.
Read more: $230bn needed: PM seeks support from global partners to implement climate adaptation plan
If there were no ‘Digital Bangladesh’, what would have happened during the Covid-19 pandemic, she wondered. “Everything would come to a standstill.”
The Prime Minister also elaborated on her government’s ICT-friendly initiatives and Vision 2041 to establish Smart Bangladesh.
She mentioned that successful implementation of Digital Bangladesh made it possible for the government to keep the economy, education and other activities running properly during the pandemic.
Regarding the economic situation worldwide due to the coronavirus pandemic and Russia-Ukraine war, sanctions and counter-sanctions, Sheikh Hasina said that prices of essentials have increased globally.
Read More: Huawei ICT Incubator announces top 6 startups from Bangladesh
“Developed countries are facing a volatile situation. Even developed countries like Great Britain have declared recession. By the grace of Allah, we are still able to run our economic wheel,” she said.
Already battered by Covid-19, load shedding hits hard Kuakata tourism, fisheries sectors
Already hit-hard by the Covid-19 pandemic, when tourism and fisheries sectors in Kuakata are trying to make a recovery, frequent load shedding have dealt another blow.
Bearing the brunt are hotel and motel owners in Kuakata, wholesale fish traders in the district’s Alipur and Mahipur landing stations, and trawler owners.
When the government decided to stop buying liquified natural gas (LNG) from the international spot market because of a sharp price hike in July, the power supply situation began to deteriorate. Daily hour-long area-based load shedding started across Bangladesh from July 19, 2022 to tackle the ongoing energy crisis.
Owners of hotels, motels, ice mills and fish traders said they are counting huge losses due to incessant power cuts.
Read More: Kuakata Sea Beach, Bangladesh: Magnificent sunrise, sunset views to remember
Motaleb Sharif, General Secretary of Kuakata Hotel Motel Owners Association and Owner of Kuakata Guest House, said that the number of tourists in Kuakata is dwindling due to rampant load shedding.
“There are a total of 150 big and small hotels and motels in Kuakata. Although these establishments were abuzz with tourists, this isn’t the case anymore. We’re frustrated with up to six load shedding every day. Tourists are losing interest because of the inconvenience,” Motaleb said.
He added that although they had informed the Prime Minister’s Energy Advisor Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury about the problem and demanded establishment of a power sub-station in the area, no steps have been taken yet.
Rahim Khan, owner of Khan Palace, said that refrigerators and air conditioners are being damaged due to the frequent power cuts.
Read More: Dead dolphin washes ashore on Kuakata beach
“We have to spend more than what we earn from the boarders. We experience load shedding even on weekends, which is discouraging tourists. Although a 1320 MW thermal power plant has been set up in Payra, people of Patuakhali are yet to reap its benefits,” Rahim said.
“Despite pandemic and Ukraine war, Bangladesh economy in robust shape”
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has reiterated that despite the Covid-19 fallout and the Russia-Ukraine war, Bangladesh economy continues to be in robust shape and that her government is exercising due diligence when taking any loan.
In an interview with Indian news agency ANI, Prime Minister Hasina ruled out concerns that Bangladesh could go the Sri Lanka way.
She said that currently the world as a whole was facing challenges, not just Bangladesh.
Read:“Not only Bangladesh, in India minorities suffered too at times”
“Our economy is still going strong… We faced the Covid-19 pandemic, and now the Russia-Ukraine war. That has its effects here. But Bangladesh always makes debt payments timely. So, our debt rate is low. Our economic trajectory and development are (planned) calculatedly,” said the prime minister.
Hasina, however, acknowledged that the war in Ukraine has posed some challenges for Bangladesh. “It has negative effects, no doubt, especially in terms of import,” she said.
Hasina asserted that because of measured approach, Bangladesh was secure on the economic front. Bangladesh did not take any loan unless it was sure that it would benefit from the project undertaken, she said.
Read:“Differences can be resolved through dialogue, Bangladesh-India do precisely that”
“I think the whole world is facing economic problems, we are too… But yes, there are people who raise this issue. ‘Oh, Bangladesh will be Sri Lanka!’ This and that. But I can assure you, no, that will not happen. Because we... all our development plans, what we prepare and we implement, we always consider what the returns would be… how people would be benefitted… Otherwise, we don’t initiate any project just to spend money,” she said.
“… The moment Covid-19 pandemic started, I called upon our people, and we provided all kinds of support and inputs, up to the village level, and also encouraged our people to grow more food items. I always supported them,” PM Hasina said during interview with ANI.
Read Teesta mainly depends on India: PM Hasina tells ANI
Tesla 2Q profit falls from 1Q, but is stronger than expected
Tesla's second-quarter profit fell 32% from record levels in the first quarter as supply chain issues and pandemic lockdowns in China slowed production of its electric vehicles.
But the Austin, Texas, company still surprised analysts Wednesday with a better-than-expected $2.26 billion net profit for the quarter. Tesla stuck with a prediction of 50% annual vehicle sales growth over the next few years, but said that depends on the supply chain, equipment capacity and other issues.
The company made a record $3.32 billion in this year's first quarter.
Tesla's sales from April through June fell to 254,000 vehicles, their lowest quarterly level since last fall. But the company predicted record-breaking production in the second half and said that in June it had the highest production month in its history.
Industry analysts had been expecting lower earnings after the lower sales figures and tweets by CEO Elon Musk about laying off 10% of the company's work force due to fears of a recession. In an interview, Musk described new factories in Austin and Berlin as “money furnaces” that were losing billions of dollars because supply chain breakdowns were limiting the number of cars they can produce.
Read: Musk sells $4B in Tesla shares, presumably for Twitter deal
But Tesla exceeded Wall Street expectations from April through June with adjusted earnings of $2.27 per share. Analysts polled by FactSet expected $1.81. Revenue was $16.93 billion, beating estimates of $16.54 billion.
Edward Jones analyst Jeff Windau said the earnings were better than expected. He noted that the decrease in automobile revenues from the first quarter was offset by stronger energy storage, solar and services performance.
Musk reiterated the 50% annual vehicle sales growth forecast but said it depends a lot on circumstances that the company might not be able to control.
Windau said the forecast “shows the confidence they have in their ability to grow the electric vehicle market.”
Tesla shares rose 1.5% to $753.40 in extended trading Wednesday.
The company said it converted 75% of its bitcoin investment to government currency during the quarter, adding $936 million in cash to its balance sheet. It spent $1.5 billion on the investment last year. Overall, it booked a $106 million cost for bitcoin, plus added costs for employee reductions.
CEO Elon Musk said the bitcoin holdings were sold to raise cash because of uncertainty over how long pandemic lockdowns would last in China. He said Tesla is open to increasing bitcoin holdings in the future.
The price of bitcoin has fallen about 50% so far this year.
Musk also said Tesla is seeing indications that inflation may be declining as prices for most commodities drop. He cautioned against making economic predictions but said commodity prices, such as steel and aluminum, are trending down.
Musk said Tesla’s “Full Self-Driving” beta test software is on track to be released before the end of this year to all North American customers who want to buy it. And with regulatory approval, it will be released in Europe and other parts of the world, he said. Despite its name, “Full Self-Driving” cannot drive itself, and Tesla warns that drivers have to pay attention all the time.
Chief Financial Officer Zachary Kirkhorn said the company is seeing “maybe a little” impact on demand due to macroeconomic issues. Musk reiterated that Tesla has a vehicle supply problem, not a demand problem, and said it now takes six months to a year to get a new vehicle. He said the company has increased prices to “embarrassing levels” due to inflation, but he hopes to reduce prices a bit.
COVID-19 pandemic fuels largest continued backslide in vaccinations in 3 decades :WHO, UNICEF
The largest sustained decline in childhood vaccinations in approximately 30 years has been recorded in official data published by WHO and UNICEF on Friday.
The percentage of children who received three doses of the vaccine against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (DTP3) – a marker for immunization coverage within and across countries – fell 5 percentage points between 2019 and 2021 to 81 per cent.
As a result, 25 million children missed out on one or more doses of DTP through routine immunization services in 2021 alone.
This is 2 million more than those who missed out in 2020 and 6 million more than in 2019, highlighting the growing number of children at risk from devastating but preventable diseases.
The decline was due to many factors including an increased number of children living in conflict and fragile settings where immunization access is often challenging, increased misinformation and COVID-19 related issues such as service and supply chain disruptions, resource diversion to response efforts, and containment measures that limited immunization service access and availability.
“This is a red alert for child health. We are witnessing the largest sustained drop in childhood immunization in a generation. The consequences will be measured in lives,” said Catherine Russell, UNICEF Executive Director.
“While a pandemic hangover was expected last year as a result of COVID-19 disruptions and lockdowns, what we are seeing now is a continued decline. COVID-19 is not an excuse. We need immunization catch-ups for the missing millions or we will inevitably witness more outbreaks, more sick children and greater pressure on already strained health systems.”
Up to18 million of the 25 million children did not receive a single dose of DTP during the year, the vast majority of whom live in low- and middle-income countries, with India, Nigeria, Indonesia, Ethiopia and the Philippines recording the highest numbers.
Among countries with the largest relative increases in the number of children who did not receive a single vaccine between 2019 and 2021 are Myanmar and Mozambique.
Read: 25 million kids missed routine vaccinations because of COVID
Globally, over a quarter of the coverage of HPV vaccines that was achieved in 2019 has been lost.
This has grave consequences for the health of women and girls, as global coverage of the first dose of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine is only 15%, despite the first vaccines being licensed over 15 years ago.
It was hoped that 2021 would be a year of recovery during which strained immunization programmes would rebuild and the cohort of children missed in 2020 would be caught-up. Instead, DTP3 coverage was set back to its lowest level since 2008 which, along with declines in coverage for other basic vaccines, pushed the world off-track to meet global goals, including the immunization indicator for the Sustainable Development Goals.
This historic backsliding in rates of immunization is happening against a backdrop of rapidly rising rates of severe acute malnutrition.
A malnourished child already has weakened immunity and missed vaccinations can mean common childhood illnesses quickly become lethal to them.
The convergence of a hunger crisis with a growing immunization gap threatens to create the conditions for a child survival crisis.
Vaccine coverage dropped in every region, with the East Asia and Pacific region recording the steepest reversal in DTP3 coverage, falling nine percentage points in just two years.
“Planning and tackling COVID-19 should also go hand-in-hand with vaccinating for killer diseases like measles, pneumonia and diarrhea,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General.
“It’s not a question of either/or, it’s possible to do both”.
Some countries notably held off declines. Uganda maintained high levels of coverage in routine immunization programmes, whilst rolling out a targeted COVID-19 vaccination programme to protect priority populations, including health workers.
Read: Children aged 5-12 to be vaccinated soon: Health Minister
Similarly, Pakistan returned to pre-pandemic levels of coverage thanks to high-level government commitment and significant catch-up immunization efforts.
To achieve this in the midst of a pandemic, when healthcare systems and health workers were under significant strain, should be applauded.
Monumental efforts will be required to reach universal levels of coverage and to prevent outbreaks. Inadequate coverage levels have already resulted in avoidable outbreaks of measles and polio in the past 12 months, underscoring the vital role of immunization in keeping children, adolescents, adults, and societies healthy.
First dose measles coverage dropped to 81 per cent in 2021, also the lowest level since 2008.
This meant 24.7 million children missed their first measles dose in 2021, 5.3 million more than in 2019.
A further 14.7 million did not receive their needed second dose.
Similarly, compared to 2019, 6.7 million more children missed the third dose of polio vaccine and 3.5 million missed the first dose of the HPV vaccine- which protects girls against cervical cancer later in life.
The sharp two-year decline follows almost a decade of stalled progress, underscoring the need to not only address pandemic-related disruptions but also systemic immunization challenges to ensure every child and adolescent is reached.
WHO and UNICEF are working with Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and other partners to deliver the global Immunization Agenda 2030 (IA2030), a strategy for all countries and relevant global partners to achieve set goals on preventing diseases through immunization and delivering vaccines to everyone, everywhere, at every age.
“It’s heart-breaking to see more children losing out on protection from preventable diseases for a second year in a row. The priority of the Alliance must be to help countries to maintain, restore and strengthen routine immunization alongside executing ambitious COVID-19 vaccination plans, not just through vaccines but also tailored structural support for the health systems that will administer them,” said Dr Seth Berkley, CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.
The IA2030 partners call on governments and relevant actors to:
Intensify efforts for catch-up vaccination to address backsliding on routine immunization, and expand outreach services in underserved areas to reach missed children and implement campaigns to prevent outbreaks;
Implement evidence-based, people-centred, and tailored strategies to build trust in vaccines and immunization, counter misinformation and increase vaccine uptake particularly among vulnerable communities;
Ensure current pandemic preparedness and response and the global health architecture strengthening efforts lead to investment in primary health care (PHC) services, with explicit support to strengthen and sustain essential immunization;
Ensure political commitment from national governments and increase domestic resource allocation to strengthen and sustain immunization within PHC;
Prioritize health information and disease surveillance systems strengthening to provide the data and monitoring needed for programmes to have maximum impact; and
Leverage and increase investment in research to develop and improve new and existing vaccines and immunization services that can achieve community needs and deliver on IA2030 goals.
What Covid taught us about risk in a complex, inter-connected world
From the mangroves of West Bengal to the vast archipelago that makes up Indonesia, and from the bustling port city of Guayaquil, Ecuador, to the tropical shores of southern Togo, systemic risks from the Covid-19 pandemic have been exposed in stark human terms.
Millions of people who were already struggling to make ends meet, often working in the informal economy in agriculture and surviving below the poverty line, had to contend with a host of new risks that they could not possibly have foreseen.
These included joblessness, debt, civil and domestic violence, children's education derailed, and opportunities severely diminished. In many locations, women suffered disproportionately due to pre-existing gender biases in society.
Taken together, these human experiences are not just a catalogue of suffering from places in the world that are not often in the headlines. They also bring into sharp focus a very real challenge: how to better understand and manage the cascading, systemic risks that resulted from Covid-19 as it spread across borders.
The new UN report "Rethinking risks in times of Covid-19" shows how a clear picture emerges of a domino effect, resulting from the outbreak of Covid-19 that rippled across societies far beyond the immediate effects of the pandemic itself.
This starkly illustrates that the world is interconnected through systems that come with associated, volatile risks that have revealed, and reinforced, vulnerabilities across society.
In Guayaquil, for instance, families already living in overcrowded housing suffered more from stay-at-home orders than those in more favourable living situations.
The city's healthcare system reached a tipping point in a matter of weeks after the first case was detected in February 2020, resulting in a high number of bodies being left unattended in hospitals and care homes, as well as on the streets.
Read: Covid-19: Bangladesh reports 36 new cases, zero death
The images of bodies accumulating in the streets that circulated in the global media were among the first to show what happened when Covid-19 arrived in densely populated urban areas.
Yet before Covid-19, the interconnectedness of such risks may not have been immediately obvious in people's daily lives. Nor was the systemic nature of these risks, meaning how they affected, or can potentially affect, whole societies beyond the initial problem.
For one thing, people tended to think about systemic risks in relation to what happened as a result of the 2008 financial crash, where the failure of big banks rippled across the global economy, leaving millions out of work and sparking a global economic recession.
Other examples can be seen in how climate change, natural hazards and, more recently, the global consequences of the war in Ukraine have brought home how the world relies on a complex, often fragile, web of interdependent factors that, if destabilised, can have devastating effects on whole societies.
For example, Ukraine and Russia are both key global cereal and fertiliser producers. One of the ripple effects of the war can be seen in rising global food prices, resulting in higher costs of living for those who can afford it and pushing those who cannot deeper into a food crisis.
The emergence of Covid-19 has forced a broadening of perspective on systemic risks. The good news is that it has expanded people's understanding of these risks, and how to address them.
Hazards and shocks can emerge from outside and within the system. Exposure to them can be indirect, meaning that effects can be felt in places that are not directly affected by the hazard – in this case, Covid – but end up being affected as a result of interconnectedness. Finally, the vulnerability of one system can also turn into a hazard or shock for other interdependent systems.
Read: Covid-19: Dhaka, Chattogram among 29 districts with higher transmission
The cascading effects originating from Covid made it possible to spot the interconnections that exist in many such systems and to assess whether a system is functioning as intended.
Another is to identify the trade-offs implicit in policy measures: several measures to combat Covid, such as school closures, stay-at-home orders or travel restrictions, had widespread effects.
This highlights the need to assess and evaluate possible trade-offs and cascading effects involved in introducing such measures because they can have unexpected repercussions and can exacerbate existing societal vulnerabilities.
A third action is to focus on processes for systemic recovery while leaving no one behind. The interconnected nature of systems presents an opportunity for positive turning points, by creating positive effects. In the pandemic context, this was made real through the job creation that followed the provision of financial assistance from governments, charities and NGOs, or advances in digitalisation following stay-at-home orders.
Today's interconnected world is an evolving system, and disastrous events are often the results of systemic failures.
Read: Bangladesh reports no death from Covid-19, new cases 56
The UN report shows that it is time to develop a deeper understanding of systemic risks, and how they trigger other hazards and shocks, often in unpredictable ways.
It also demonstrates that managing these risks needs to be properly embedded in how policymakers, planners, and other stakeholders approach risk management, to create more resilient, equitable and prosperous communities and societies around the world.
WHO: COVID-19 deaths rise, reversing a 5-week decline
After five weeks of declining coronavirus deaths, the number of fatalities reported globally increased by 4% last week, according to the World Health Organization.
In its weekly assessment of the pandemic issued on Thursday, the U.N. health agency said there were 8,700 COVID-19 deaths last week, with a 21% jump in the Americas and a 17% increase in the Western Pacific.
WHO said coronavirus cases continued to fall, with about 3.2 million new cases reported last week, extending a decline in COVID-19 infections since the peak in January. Still, there were significant spikes of infection in some regions, with the Middle East and Southeast Asia reporting increases of 58% and 33% respectively.
“Because many countries have reduced surveillance and testing, we know this number is under-reported,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said earlier this week. He said there was “no acceptable level of deaths from COVID-19,” given that the global community now has the vaccines, medicines and diagnostics to stop the virus.
While many rich countries in Europe and North America have mostly dropped their virus restrictions, China’s extreme COVID-19 policies have meant more mass testing, quarantines and sequestering of anyone who was in contact with a case.
Read: Declare COVID-19 vaccines a global common good: Global leaders
China’s capital put school back online this week in one of its major districts amid a new COVID-19 outbreak linked to a nightclub. Residents in Beijing are still undergoing regular testing — mostly every other day — and must wear masks and swipe a mobile phone app to enter public places and facilitate case tracing.
China has maintained its “zero-COVID” policy despite considerable economic costs and an assertion from the head of the World Health Organization that the policy isn’t sustainable.
This week, U.S. officials moved a step closer to authorizing coronavirus vaccines for the youngest children, after the Food and Drug Administration’s vaccine advisers gave a thumbs-up to vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech for children under 5.
The outside experts voted unanimously that the benefits of the shots outweigh any risks for children under 5 — that’s roughly 18 million youngsters. They are the last age group in the U.S. without access to COVID-19 vaccines, and many parents have been anxious to protect their little children.
If all the regulatory steps are cleared, shots should be available next week.
WHO: Monkeypox won’t turn into pandemic, but many unknowns
The World Health Organization’s top monkeypox expert said she doesn’t expect the hundreds of cases reported to date to turn into another pandemic, but acknowledged there are still many unknowns about the disease, including how exactly it’s spreading and whether the suspension of mass smallpox immunization decades ago may somehow be speeding its transmission.
In a public session on Monday, WHO’s Dr. Rosamund Lewis said it was critical to emphasize that the vast majority of cases being seen in dozens of countries globally are in gay, bisexual or men who have sex with men, so that scientists can further study the issue and for populations at risk to take precautions.
“It’s very important to describe this because it appears to be an increase in a mode of transmission that may have been under-recognized in the past,” said Lewis, WHO’s technical lead on monkeypox.
Still, she warned that anyone is at potential risk of the disease, regardless of their sexual orientation. Other experts have pointed out that it may be accidental that the disease was first picked up in gay and bisexual men, saying it could quickly spill over into other groups if it is not curbed. To date, WHO said 23 countries that haven’t previously had monkeypox have reported more than 250 cases.
Lewis said it’s unknown whether monkeypox is being transmitted by sex or just the close contact between people engaging in sexual activity and described the threat to the general population as “low.”
Also Read: WHO: COVID-19 cases mostly drop, except for the Americas
“It is not yet known whether this virus is exploiting a new mode of transmission, but what is clear is that it continues to exploit its well-known mode of transmission, which is close, physical contact,” Lewis said. Monkeypox is known to spread when there is close physical contact with an infected person or their clothing or bedsheets.
She also warned that among the current cases, there is a higher proportion of people with fewer lesions that are more concentrated in the genital region and sometimes nearly impossible to see.
“You may have these lesions for two to four weeks (and) they may not be visible to others, but you may still be infectious,” she said.
Last week, a top adviser to WHO said the outbreak in Europe, U.S., Israel, Australia and beyond was likely linked to sex at two recent raves in Spain and Belgium. That marks a significant departure from the disease’s typical pattern of spread in central and western Africa, where people are mainly infected by animals like wild rodents and primates, and epidemics haven’t spilled across borders.
Most monkeypox patients experience only fever, body aches, chills and fatigue. People with more serious illness may develop a rash and lesions on the face and hands that can spread to other parts of the body. No deaths have been reported in the current outbreak.
WHO’s Lewis also said that while previous cases of monkeypox in central and western Africa have been relatively contained, it was not clear if people could spread monkeypox without symptoms or if the disease might be airborne, like measles or COVID-19.
Monkeypox is related to smallpox, but has milder symptoms. After smallpox was declared eradicated in 1980, countries suspended their mass immunization programs, a move that some experts believe may be helping monkeypox spread, since there is now little widespread immunity to related diseases; smallpox vaccines are also protective against monkeypox.
Lewis said it would be “unfortunate” if monkeypox were able to “exploit the immunity gap” left by smallpox 40 years ago, saying that there was still a window of opportunity to close down the outbreak so that monkeypox would not become entrenched in new regions.
Covid-19: Bangladesh reports 34 new cases, no death
Bangladesh registered 34 new Covid cases in 24 hours till Tuesday morning taking the country's total caseload to 1,953,298, health authorities said.
With no new Covid death reported during the period, the total fatalities from the pandemic so far remained unchanged at 29,130.
Also read:Pfizer says 3 COVID shots protect children under 5
On Monday, the country saw two deaths from Covid-19 with 31 new cases.
The daily test positivity rate slightly increased to 0.79 per cent from Monday’s 0.67 per cent as 4,333 samples were tested, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
The mortality rate remained unchanged at 1.49 per cent. The recovery rate rose to 97.34 per cent as 228 patients recovered during this period.
In April, the country reported only five Covid-linked deaths and 1,114 new cases, while 14,100 patients recovered from the disease, according to the DGHS.
Among the five deaths during the period, two were unvaccinated patients while three were vaccinated with two doses of the Covid vaccine.
Also read: Covid-19: Bangladesh registers 2 deaths with 31 new cases
The country reported its first zero Covid death in a single day on November 20 last year, along with 178 cases, since the pandemic broke out here in March 2020.
On January 28, Bangladesh logged its previous highest positivity rate of 33.37 per cent.
The country registered its highest daily caseload of 16,230 on July 28 last year and daily fatalities of 264 on August 10 in the same year.
Covid-19: Bangladesh logs 32 new cases, no death
Bangladesh reported 32 Covid cases in 24 hours until Tuesday morning which took the total caseload to 1,953,081.
With no new Covid death reported during the period for the 27th consecutive day, the total fatalities from the pandemic remained unchanged at 29,127.
Also read: North Korea reports 15 more suspected COVID-19 deaths
The daily test positivity rate dropped to 0.75 per cent from Monday’s 0.77 as 4,275 samples were tested, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
On Monday, the number of cases was higher as 37 new cases were reported.
The mortality rate remained unchanged at 1.49 per cent. The recovery rate rose to 97.28 per cent as 258 patients recovered during this period.
In April, the country reported only five Covid-linked deaths and 1,114 new cases, while 14,100 patients recovered from the disease, according to the DGHS.
Among the five deaths during the period, two were unvaccinated patients while three were vaccinated with two doses of the Covid vaccine.
Also read: Covid-19 in Bangladesh: 37 new cases reported
The country reported its first zero Covid death in a single day on November 20 last year, along with 178 cases, since the pandemic broke out here in March 2020.
On January 28, Bangladesh logged its previous highest positivity rate of 33.37 per cent.
The country registered its highest daily caseload of 16,230 on July 28 last year and daily fatalities of 264 on August 10 in the same year.