Bangladesh logged 17 more Covid-linked deaths with 9,614 fresh cases in 24 hours till Saturday morning with a slight decline in the infection rate. The daily positivity rate declined to 28.02 per cent from Friday’s 28.49 per cent after testing 34,311 samples, according to the Directorate general of health Services (DGHS). The country last logged 17 deaths on October 13 last with 513 cases. Bangladesh reported 1,434 fresh cases with 12 deaths on Friday. The fresh numbers took the country’s total fatalities to 28,209 while the caseload mounted to 1,674,230 on Saturday. Read: Govt primary school shut after all teachers test Covid-19 positive in Cumilla Among the new deceased, 11 were men and six women. Eleven cases were reported in Dhaka division while two each in Chattogram, Khulna, one each in Barishal and Mymensingh divisions. Meanwhile, the mortality rate further declined to 1.68 per cent.

Health authorities have designated Dhaka and Rangamati as ‘red zones’, following an exponential rise in Covid infections in the two districts. The infection rate in Dhaka and Rangamati is 10-19%, according to the Directorate General of Health Services. Besides, six districts, including Jashore, have been marked as ‘yellow zones’ or at "mid-level risk". The five other districts are Rajshahi, Rangpur, Natore, Lalmonirhat and Dinajpur. The infection rate in these districts is between 5% and 9%, the directorate said on Wednesday. On the other hand, 54 districts have been marked as 'green zones' while the sample test rate of Panchagarh and Bandarban districts are poor. The districts under green zones are Chattogram, Bogura, Gazipur, Cox’s Bazar, Kushtia, Nilphamari, Barguna, Sherpur, Meherpur, Thakurgaon, Feni, Sirajganj, Jamalpur, Pirojpur, Bagerhat, Narayanganj, Naogaon, Jhalakathi, Khulna, Patuakhali, Kurigram, Joypurhat, Faridpur and Barishal. Read: Global Covid cases surpass 313 million Chuadanga, Manikganj, Chandpur, Laxmipur, Mymensingh, Rajbari, Sylhet, Satkhira, Gopalganj, Moulvibazar, Noakhali, Kishoreganj, Gaibandha, Shariatpur, Munshiganj, Narsingdi, Khagrachhari, Jhenaidah, Pabna, Madaripur, Magura, Sunamganj, Chapainawabganj, Cumilla, Netrakona, Bhola, Tangail, Habiganj, Brahmanbaria and Narail are the other districts. DGHS has, in fact, divided the districts of the country as red, yellow and green zones, considering the infection rate of Covid. On Monday, the government imposed restrictions on public movement and other activities like operations of public transport vehicles at half their capacities amid the growing concern over the new Omicron variant of the coronavirus. The restrictions will be effective January 13 until further notice. Covid situation in Bangladesh Bangladesh is seeing a continuous rise in Covid-19 cases as 2,458 more infections along with two more deaths were reported in 24 hours till Tuesday morning.

Covid-19 booster doses will be administered on trial basis from Sunday, said Health Minister Zahid Maleque. However, the minister did not mention the time and vaccination center where the booster doses will be administered. The minister said this at a Pitha-Puli festival in Manikganj on Friday. Maleque said the government decided to administer booster doses to senior citizens aged above 60 and frontliners, including doctors, nurses, government officials and journalists, who got the two doses of vaccine six months ago. He said that all the activities to administer booster doses are underway. “The Prime Minister also has given approval to start a booster dose.” In this regard, steps to update the ‘Surokkha’ app are in progress. Besides, lists of those who are eligible for booster dose are being prepared, said the minister. Read: Covid booster doses to start within 7-10 days: Minister Zahid Maleque said seven crore people received the first dose and 4.5 crore people have been fully vaccinated so far in Bangladesh. There is no shortage of covid vaccines in the country. Currently, seven lakh doses of Pfizer vaccines are in stock. In all, 4.45 crore doses of vaccine are in stock. Two crore more doses of vaccine will arrive next month, the minister added. On Wednesday, Zahid Maleque said at a programme while receiving 80 lakh doses of AstraZeneca vaccine donated by Japan and UK through the global COVAX facility that the drive to administer Covid-19 booster doses will be in the next seven to ten days. On Monday, the Cabinet directed the authorities concerned, particularly the Health Minister and the National Technical Advisory Committee on Covid-19, to work on a precise guideline over the campaign of booster dose of Covid-19 vaccine in Bangladesh. PM also instructed earlier the technical committee to work on a precise guideline over when the booster dose campaign needs to be started. On Sunday, the National Technical Advisory Committee (NTAC) on Covid-19 recommended booster shots to the citizens above 60 and frontliners. Read: National Committee recommends booster dose for above 60 citizens, frontliners The senior citizens and frontliners who got the two doses of vaccine six months ago will get the booster dose, the NTAC recommended at a meeting. It also suggested all to take steps to limit public gatherings, meetings and rallies to contain the spread of Omicron. On December 9, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Omicron is now present in 57 countries and asked all countries to stay alert about the new variant. A WHO panel named the Coronavirus variant ‘Omicron’ and classified it as a highly transmissible virus of concern, the same category that includes the predominant delta variant, which is still a scourge driving higher cases of sickness and death in Europe and parts of the USA. Amid the growing concern over the new ‘Omicron’ variant of coronavirus, the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) suggested the implementation of 15 instructions to prevent the spread of the new variant and urged all concerned to take measures to enforce the instructions.

Amid the global race to vaccinate people, the Covid-19 pandemic in Bangladesh has eased with the health authorities reporting three deaths and 206 fresh cases in 24 hours till Tuesday morning The new casualties marked a slight drop from Monday’s six deaths and 215 fresh cases. Also Read: Global Covid cases top 250 million Both the daily-case positivity and the mortality rates remained unchanged at 1.28 per cent and at 1.78 per cent respectively, said the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS). The fresh cases were detected after testing 17,530 samples. Two of the three deceased were men and one was a woman. Also Read: 12 crore vaccine doses to be administered by January: Health Minister With the fresh numbers, the Covid-19 fatalities reached 27,904 while the caseload climbed to 1,571,434, according to the DGHS. Also, the recovery rate remained unchanged at 97.71 percent, with the recovery of 356 more patients during the period. So far, 31,622,370 people have fully been vaccinated in the country while 46,707,885 received the first dose as of Monday, said the DGHS.    

Though the Covid-19 pandemic looks to have eased in Bangladesh with an insignificant infection rate for the past several weeks, experts warn that a fresh mild wave of Covid-19 may hit the country during this winter. Since the virus still remains in some pockets of the country, they said it is likely to spread fast amid the presence of different flues with the fall of mercury next month due to public apathy to wear masks and health safety rules, low pace in vaccination and lack of human intervention and necessary bulwarks. The analysts also said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina rightly rang the alarm bell last week as the virus cases are surging again in many countries and neighbouring India’s West Bengal. Read Bangladesh bracing for third Covid wave? They, however, said Bangladesh can avoid the possible winter wave by intensifying the virus control measures, including strict screening at air and land ports, encouraging people to maintain health safety rules, and wear masks and strengthening the vaccination drive. On October 28, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina urged all to maintain health protocols like wearing masks to check the resurgence of Coronavirus in the upcoming winter as the virus hits many countries, including the USA, England and some European countries, at this time. Current Covid situation Bangladesh reported 256 Covid cases on Wednesday with 1.31 percent passivity rate. The fresh cases were detected after testing 19,523 samples, said the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS). Read: Bangladesh logs another 7 Covid-linked deaths, 247 fresh infections Though Covid infection rate crossed 30 percent in July this year and it continued falling from mid-August. The virus came down to below five percent on September 21 while it declined to below 3 percent on October 3 and below two percent on October 22.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Thursday urged all to maintain health protocols like wearing masks to check the recharge of Coronavirus in the upcoming winter as the virus hits many countries of the world at this time. “I urge all to remain careful so that Coronavirus cannot resurge in any way. You’ll have to wear facemasks always,” she said, adding that the virus has again hit many other countries including the USA, England and Europe in the world with the advent of winter. The Prime Minister said this while receiving 2645,000 blankets for the destitute from the Bangladesh Association of Bank (BAB) for her relief godown ahead of winter. She joined the blanket handover ceremony, held at the Prime Minister's Office (PMO), virtually from her official residence Ganobhaban. Read: Bangladesh reports 6 more Covid deaths, 294 fresh cases Noting that the season changes in October-November here, which is a very critical time for the outbreak of influenza and cough, she urged people to take precaution to prevent influenza and cough in this transitional period between the cold and hot seasons. Hasina also asked people to keep vitamin C-enriched fruits in their food menu to enhance their immunity against the coronavirus alongside maintaining the health protocols. She said the government has successfully been able to keep the coronavirus under control. The PM reassured that all those who are eligible for vaccination according to WHO would be brought under vaccination by the middle of the next year. Read: Conduct digital surveys to protect forests: PM She thanked the representatives of the private banks for donating the blankets and cash for the poor. "You people are always coming forward to help the poor." On behalf of the Prime Minister, her Principal Secretary Dr Ahmad Kaikaus received the blankets and a cheque of Tk 10 lakh for the PM's Relief and Welfare Fund from 37 private banks. BAB Chairman Nazrul Islam Majumder spoke at the function while top representatives from the banks were present.

Covid-19 in Bangladesh claimed ten  more lives and infected another 243  people in 24 hours till Thursday  morning. The daily-case positivity rate decreased further to 1.51 per cent from  Wednesday’s  1.81 per cent. Read:Covid kills 78 more in Bangladesh With the fresh numbers, the Covid fatalities reached 27,801 while the caseload climbed to 1,566,907  in Bangladesh, according to the Directorate General of the Health services (DGHS). Of the latest deaths, four were men and six were women. The new cases were detected after testing 16,088 samples during the 24-hour period. However, the mortality rate remained static at 1.77 per cent compared to the same period. Besides, the recovery rate rose slightly to 97.65 per cent, with 534 more patients getting cured.

Covid-19 claimed 7 more lives in Bangladesh and infected 466 others in 24 hours till Thursday morning. With the fresh numbers, the Covid-19 fatalities reached 27,737 in the country while the caseload rose to 15,64,485, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS). Read: Covid-19: 17 more die, 518 infected in Bangladesh Of the latest deceased, four were women and three men.  Three of them died in Dhaka division, two in Chattogram and one each in Khulna and Barishal divisions. Bangladesh last logged seven Covid-19 deaths on October 8, the lowest since March 17 this year when the country recorded 11 such deaths. The fresh cases were detected after testing 21,568 samples. Read: Global Covid cases near 237 million With this, the daily-case positivity rate declined slightly to 2.16% percent. However, the mortality rate remained static at 1.77%. Besides, the recovery rate increased slightly to 97.56 %, with 695 more patients getting cured during the period. So far, 15,26,368  people have recovered from the deadly virus infections, the DGHS added.

Covid-19 claimed 17 more lives in Bangladesh and infected 518 others in 24 hours till Wednesday morning. With the fresh numbers, the Covid-19 fatalities reached 27,730 in the country while the caseload mounted to 15,64,019, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS). Read: Global Covid cases near 237 million Of the latest deceased, nine were women and eight men.  Thirteen of them died in Dhaka division, one in Chattogram, two in Khulna and one in Barishal divisions. Bangladesh logged seven Covid-19 deaths on October 8, the lowest since March 17 this year when the country recorded 11 such deaths. The fresh cases were detected after testing 22,153 samples. With this, the daily-case positivity rate declined slightly to 2.34% percent. Read: Covid kills 11 more in Bangladesh, infects 599 others However, the mortality rate remained static at 1.77%. However, the recovery rate decreased slightly to 97.54% from Tuesday’s 97.55, with 505 more patients getting cured during the period from Monday’s 97.53%. So far, 15,25,673 people have recovered from the deadly virus infections, the DGHS added.

As the highly contagious Delta variant of Covid-19 has made its way into Dhaka and other districts from frontier ones, experts fear an impending health catastrophe in the coming weeks since there is no strict measure in place to stop it. They said half-hearted preventive measures, lack of seriousness of local administrations, reopening of intra-district transport services and people’s apathy to maintain health safety guidelines are the major reasons behind the worsening Covid situation in the country. The Institute of Epidemiology Disease Control and Research has recently found 80 percent of a randomly selected sample of 50 Covid patients infected with the Delta variant. It also said the deadly variant has spread to parts of central Bangladesh, including the capital, while seven workers of Ashrayan Project in Nawabganj upazila of Dhaka have been detected with the same virus strain. The sudden spike in virus cases has put a severe strain on four major hospitals ---Rajshahi Medical College, Khulna Medical College, Chapainawabganj and Kushtia General Hospital--with increasing patients from 11 nearby districts. Also read: IEDCR study of 50 samples finds 40 are Delta Experts said the government should immediately increase the number of beds, doctors and nurses and treatment facilities, in these hospitals to cope with the pressure of Covid patients. The virus infection has been showing an upward trend in Rajshahi, Chapainawabganj, Dinajpur, Joypurhat, Naogaon, Kushtia, Jashore, Satkhira, Khulna, Bagerhat, Natore, Noakhali and Cox's Bazar districts for several days.