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.

Authorities have recorded 10 more Covid-19-related deaths in the past 24 hours on Wednesday, taking the total death toll to 701 in Chattogram district. Besides, 399 people tested positive for the virus after in1,364 samples test in nine laboratories during this period, said Chattogram Civil Surgeon Dr. Sheikh Fazle Rabbi. Read: Coronavirus claims eight more lives in Chattogram Of the total infected people, 284 were from Chattogram city and the rest 115 from different upazilas of the district. The infection rate is high in Fatikchchari upazila. So far, 58,724 people have been infected in the district. Read: CMCH doctor among 3 died from COVID-19 in Chattogram Earlier, authorities have put Fatikchchari upazila under eight –day lockdown from June 23 due to worsening situation of Covid-19.

The government will be confirmed within a few days whether the highly contagious Indian variant of coronavirus has already reached Bangladesh as an investigation is going on in this regard, said Director General of Health Services (DGHS) on Monday. Speaking at a virtual press briefing, DGHS spokesperson Dr Nazmul Islam, said, "We may be able to say it in a few days whether the Indian strain of Covid-19 has come to Bangladesh or not." He said the samples of those who tested positive for coronavirus after entering Bangladesh from India are being collected. “These samples are being sent for genome sequencing…we’ll share it with you immediately after receiving the report.” Also Read: Shutting border with India: Experts praise it as prudent decision Replying to a question, Nazmul said whether those who have taken the first doses of the Oxford vaccine can take the second doses of any other company’s vaccine, he said they did not yet get any specific advice from the World Health Organization and vaccine companies to this end. He said they will wait for 12 weeks to have the Oxford Vaccine and they hope they will get it by this time. “There’s some sort of politics and diplomacy around the world over vaccines. Even then, it should be the ultimate victory of humanity. As we’ve seen Bangladesh finally came out victorious always. That's why we want to be confident that we’ll get the Oxford vaccine and will complete the second dose with the same,” The DGHS spokesman said. He said the stock of the vaccine collected by the government from India is about to run out. Nazmul said 58,19,709 people received the first doses of the vaccine while 29,36,241 the second doses as of May 2. “We don’t have many vaccine doses in our hands now.” He said they hoped that they would get vaccine doses from China by this month. Also Read: Coronavirus: 'Double mutant' Covid variant found in India The DGHS spokesman said efforts are on to collect the vaccines from different sources, including China and Russia, as early as possible. Stating that mask is the biggest preventive gear against Coronavirus in absence of a vaccine, Nazmul urged all to wear masks whenever they come out of their homes and maintain health safety rules to remain safe from the virus.

Though a nationwide lockdown has been enforced in Bangladesh for one week with a high hope to limit the spread of deadly Coronavirus, health experts think that this ‘unscientific and halfhearted’ lockdown is unlikely to yield any positive result. They said the widespread movement of people, demonstrations and public gatherings at kitchen markets and other places on the first day of lockdown have exhibited that people did not take this “partial” shutdown seriously since offices, factories and Amar Ekushey Book Fair are open. Also Read: Ekushey Book Fair to remain open from 12 to 5pm amid The experts suggested enforcing a complete lockdown for 14 days shutting down all the offices, mills, factories, book fair and businesses, except those engaged in emergency services, and enforcing it strictly by involving public representatives to break the Covid transmission cycle. A nationwide lockdown for a week was enforced on Monday morning as part of a move to slow down the rapid spike in both coronavirus infection and mortality rates. It is the first official lockdown in Bangladesh to tamp the virus. On March 26 last year, the government had declared general holidays along with a transport shutdown instead of enforcing lockdown as the country was witnessing the surge in coronavirus transmission. Also Read: Lockdown Day 1: Protests held, health rules, govt directives not followed ‘Halfhearted’ lockdown unproductive Talking to UNB, Prof Muzaherul Huq, a former adviser to WHO South-East Asia region, said: “We can't call it a lockdown since the government has kept mills, factories, offices and even the book fair open. This is not the scientific way to restrict public movement.” He said lockdown means controlling the movement of people completely. “Lockdown means everything will be closed. Only some important emergency services, drugstores and certain markets from where people can buy food can remain open.” Muzaherul said the seven-day restriction enforced by the government does not match with the principle and definition of lockdown. “It’s an unscientific, unplanned and halfhearted lockdown. It won’t help the nation get success in containing the virus transmission.” Noted virologist Prof Nazrul Islam, also a member of the National Technical Advisory Committee, said lockdown is a universally accepted system to control the movement of people by shutting down everything, except emergency services. He said it seems the government enforced a partial lockdown keeping many things open. “A partial lockdown can be enforced in any particular area, not across the country. It’ll be only waste of energy, loss of money. The desired goal can’t be achieved with it.” Also Read: Homebound people flock at launch and bus terminals dreading lockdown Prof Nazrul said people did not take the lockdown seriously as there is no strong monitoring and enforcement of laws to implement the lockdown. Lockdown should be 14 days Public health expert MH Chowdhury (Lenin), chairman of the medicine department at the Health and Hope Hospital, said a complete lockdown should be enforced for at least 14 days to slow down the virus transmission. “Two weeks are an incubation period for coronavirus in human bodies. So, the virus transmission cycle can’t be broken with a seven-day lockdown,” he said. Lenin said people violated the restriction enforced by the government for seven days on the very first day as there is no seriousness among them about the shutdown. Also Read: Govt set to enforce 7-day lockdown from Monday “I think the government should immediately work out effective plans to enforce a strict lockdown. Law enforcers should enhance their monitoring so that no one can come out of home without any genuine need. A situation should be created so that people don’t dare to go outside unnecessarily. Or else, we can’t achieve anything from the relaxed lockdown.” Engaging public representatives    Prof Nazrul Islam said it is not possible for the law enforcement agencies alone to implement the lockdown without the cooperation and involvement of people at every level, especially the public representatives. “But the government has not taken any step to engage public representatives to enforce the lockdown.” He said a monitoring team should be formed at every locality to enforce the lockdown and stop the unnecessary public movement. Prof Nazrul Islam said the government should come up with directives about how the local public representatives and administration can stand by poor people being hit hard by the shutdown. “People will come out if there’s no food at their homes.” Besides, the expert said, there should be a clear directive as to how people will buy food and necessary items amid the lockdown maintaining health safety rules. “Big blunder” Dr Abu Jamil Faisel, a member of the public health expert team formed for the eight divisions, said the government made a blunder by allowing people to leave Dhaka before the lockdown. “Many people carrying the virus went to different places before the lockdown which will only help the virus spread fast across the country.” He said the lockdown was declared for not allowing people to go to their village homes. “It’s enforced to keep people where they’re staying so that the virus can’t spread.” The expert said the government should have stopped the transport services before announcing the lockdown decision. “People would not have been able to leave Dhaka had the government done it.” Reinforcing lockdown Dr Faisel said the government issued an 18-point directive before enforcing the lockdown. “There was a plan to implement the directives through coordinated efforts by 10 ministries, but that didn’t happen, and it ultimately forced the government to take a decision about the lockdown.” He said the government enforced the lockdown hurriedly without working out necessary plans to implement it.  “There’s still a chance to reinforce the lockdown taking some corrective measures.” “What’s the justification of enforcing a lockdown by keeping everything -- expect shops and malls and transports -- open? The book fair is open for no reason. This fair should be stopped right now. If necessary, it can be run virtually. Public movement can’t be controlled by keeping the fair and offices open,” the expert added.  

The global Covid-19 cases surpassed 131 million on Monday despite the rapid vaccination campaign across the world, according to the data compiled by Johns Hopkins University (JHU). The JHU data shows that the global case count reached 131,203,647 as of Monday morning while the death toll from the virus mounted to 2,852,196. Also Read: Global Covid cases hit 130.6 million The confirmed cases of Covid-19 surpassed 30 million in the USA alone on March 25. The global death toll from Covid-19 now stands at over 555,001. On Sunday, Brazil registered 1,240 more deaths and 31,359 new cases, with the total fatalities reaching 331,433, its health ministry reported. Registering a total of 12,984,956 infections, Brazil is currently one of the global epicenters of the Covid-19 pandemic, with the world's second-worst outbreak in terms of both deaths and infections, only after the United States. Also Read: Covid-19: Bangladesh records 6000+ cases for 2nd straight day As of Saturday, Brazil has vaccinated 24.5 million people against Covid-19. Among them, 19.18 million received the first dose while 5.32 million both doses. India’s total tally reached 12,495,509 while the death toll 64,623.   Situation in Bangladesh Bangladesh recorded 7,087 fresh Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours until Sunday morning which is the highest number of infections since the pandemic has hit the country. Besides, the coronavirus fatalities rose to 9,266 with 53 new deaths during the period. The mortality rate fell to 1.45 on Sunday from Saturday’s 1.46 percent. Coronavirus claimed 568 lives in January this year, 281 in February and 638 in March. Bangladesh has so far recorded 637,364 coronavirus cases, according to a handout issued by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS). Bangladesh reported its first cases on March 8 last year and confirmed the first death from the virus 10 days later.   Countrywide lockdown   In an effort to prevent the transmission of Coronavirus and improve the current situation, the government has issued a gazette imposing restrictions on the movement of people and other activities for seven days from Monday. The Cabinet Division issued the gazette on Sunday which will remain in force from 6 am on April 5 till 12 am on April 11.   Vaccination drive   The government launched a countrywide vaccination campaign on February 7 with doses received from the Serum Institute of India. Bangladesh signed an agreement with Serum in December last year for 30 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine. Serum is supposed to supply the doses between January and June this year – 5 million each month.  

 The Covid situation is worsening around the world with each passing day. In fact, the overall number of corona cases has now surpassed 128 million. Whilr the total case count reached 128,144,389, the death toll from the virus mounted to 2,802,066 on Wednesday morning, according to Johns Hopkins University. Also Read: Global Covid-19 cases surge past 127 million The US, which remains the worst hit country both in terms of cases and deaths, has so far recorded 30,393,028 cases and 550,955 deaths, as per the university data. Brazil on Tuesday registered the highest daily count of 3,780 Covid-19 deaths in the past 24 hours, the country's ministry of health said. The latest figure has raised the nationwide death toll to 317,646 since Brazil's first case was detected on February 26, 2020. Also Read: Global Covid-19 cases top 126.6 million In addition, 84,494 new cases have been recorded, bringing the national count to 12,658,109. Brazil is currently one of the countries hardest hit by Covid-19 worldwide in terms of both deaths and infections, second only to the United States. Currently, the country is seeing 6,023 cases with 151 deaths per 100,000 citizens. India has registered 12,095,855 cases as of Wednesday morning, with 162,114 deaths, as per the official data. Situation in Bangladesh Coronavirus fatalities in Bangladesh rose to 8994 on Tuesday after health authorities recorded 45 more deaths in the past 24 hours till Tuesday morning. Besides, 5,042 more people were diagnosed with coronavirus, pushing up the total caseload to 6,05,937, the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) said in a handout. The cases were reported after testing of 26,620 samples, the handout said. It said the infection rate jumped to 18.94 percent on Tuesday from 18.38 percent on Monday. However, the mortality rate slipped slightly to 1.48 percent. During the 24-hour period, 2,162 coronavirus patients recovered, taking the total number of recovered patients to 54,0180. Bangladesh reported its first cases on March 8, 2020, and the first death on March 18 the same year. In the wake of a fresh surge in the Covid-19 infections, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) on Monday issued an 18-point directive in an effort to contain the spread of coronavirus in Bangladesh. "The Health Ministry has also proposed partial lockdowns for some places with higher coronavirus transmission rates," Health Minister Zahid Maleque said Monday. Partial lockdown, closure of amusement centres, picnic spots, religious gatherings, limiting wedding ceremonies, strengthening quarantine system, limiting passengers in public transport, and limiting attendance in offices are some of the recommendations. The ministry has also proposed ensuring a ‘no mask, no service’ policy, increasing the number of mobile courts and imposing fines on health guideline violators. Bangladesh on Monday recorded its highest-ever single day infection (5,181) since the first cases were reported on March 8 last year. 

Young journalist Afzal Mohammad on Thursday died of COVID-19 at a hospital in the capital. He was 31.

Bangladesh’s Covid-19 fatalities rose to 7,966 on Thursday after the health authorities confirmed 16 more coronavirus-related deaths in 24 hours until morning.

Bangladesh is seeing a sharp decline in the number of new Covid-19 cases over the past week.

The announcement of the first fully-approved vaccines for COVID-19, the disease at the heart of probably the most pervasive pandemic the world has ever known, came as the proverbial light at the end of a long and particularly dark and death-filled tunnel. Pretty soon however, we learned those first ones (not counting Sputnik, the Russian contribution that presented a different set of problems) were not for everyone. We watched as the light eventually turned into a train, and then as it blew right by us. But it was hardly reason to be discouraged, because ours was on its way.