Covid-19 claimed 36 more lives and infected 1,457 others in Bangladesh in 24 hours till Thursday morning. With the latest figure, the number of fatalities rose to 12,284, said a handout of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS). The daily infection rate slightly declined to 7.50 percent from Wednesday’s 7.83 percent while the mortality rate remained static at 1.56 percent, it said. The new cases pushed up the total caseload to 7,85,194. The total number of recoveries is 7,27,510, including 1378 in the last 24 hours. This puts the country’s recovery rate at 92.65% Bangladesh is now seeing a steep rise in the numbers of both daily deaths and cases after a decline during the Eid holidays.   The number of tests is seeing an increase as around 20,000 samples were tested during the past two days  which mostly remained below 20,000 since May 7. So far, the country has carried out 57,74,883 sample tests since reporting its first cases on March 8 last year and the first death on the 18th of that month. 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 administring 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 past 24 hours, no one received the first dose of the vaccine while 53,915 have received the second dose, said the health directorate. Vaccine supply update Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen on Thursday said the government is making its best efforts to get vaccines connecting multiple countries -- the United States, China, Canada, Russia and the UK -- apart from its continuous request to India to meet Bangladesh's urgent needs. He said the discussion with China is almost at the final stage while they are expecting a positive reply from the US on the vaccine front.   Bangladesh received 5 lakh China’s Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine doses, donated by the Chinese government to Bangladesh, on May 12 the administering of which will begin by May 25-26, said the Health Minister. Bangladesh will receive a minimum 1,06,000 doses of Pfizer vaccine under the COVAX scheme, co-led by Gavi on June 2, Health Minister Zahid Maleque said Tuesday. Besides, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on Wednesday approved a proposal of the Health Services Division to import the Sinofarm Covid-19 vaccine.

Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (BCSIR)  sent 5,000  viral transport medium (VTM) kits to the Directorate General of Health Services(DGHS) on Tuesday.