Bangladesh's daily Covid-19 test positivity rate rose to 18.59% while the death toll to 13,399 with 54 new fatalities in 24 hours until early Friday amid the extension of the ongoing countrywide lockdown till July 15. The new positivity rate is the highest in two months. On Thursday, the daily test positivity rate dropped to 15.44% from Wednesday's 16.62%, according to the Directorate General of Health Services. Also, 3,883 fresh cases were reported in the past 24 hours, after testing 20,822 samples, taking the total caseload to 844,970. However, the fatality rate remained static at 1.59 % during the same period and the recovery rate dropped to 92.12% from Thursday's 92.32%. Read: Resolution adopted seeking equitable access to Covid vaccine Chattogram division recorded the highest 15 deaths, while Rajshahi and Dhaka 12 each, Khulna eight, Barishal four, Sylhet two, and Mymensingh one. Correlation between death rate and cases observed To get an accurate measure of death rate, the number of infected people should be used as the denominator and the deceased as the numerator – both of which occurred and ended within a specified time, Dr AM Zakir Hussain, former director of the Institute of Epidemiology Disease Control and Research, told UNB. "But for a disease like Covid-19, which still rages on, the rate should be considered in reference to a specific and relevant time. A recent assessment showed that the highest number of deaths occurred 14 days after the highest number of Covid-19 cases – a situation that still prevails in Bangladesh and India. So, the current method for estimating death rate is not accurate," he said. What's test positivity? The Covid-19 positivity rate indicates, among other things, the number of people showing clinical features of the disease or the percentage of individuals suffering from the disease. Such estimation has two errors, Dr Zakir said. Read: Record high 82 million-plus people displaced despite Covid: UN "One, an RT-PCR test, based on the present method of sample collection, misses about one-third of the actual cases. Two, when more than 20 cycles of diagnostic procedures are repeated even a single virus in a sample would show a positive result, which, however, will not indicate that the person who gave the sample will transmit the infection to others or that they will come down with the disease. An RT-PCR test shows positive results even when the virus is dead," he added. Mass vaccination expected to resume by July The government halted administering the first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine on April 26 considering the dwindling stock of its jabs. Also, registration for the Covid-19 vaccination remained suspended amid uncertainty over the availability of promised vaccine doses from India's Serum Institute. Read: Migrants listed in priority list for Covid-19 vaccine However, the mass vaccination of Covid-19 is expected to resume in July next as the government is making all-out efforts to collect vaccines, said Principal Secretary Dr Ahmad Kaikaus Thursday. "The government has allotted a fund of Tk14,000 crore for the procurement of vaccines as it’s an all-out effort to ensure Covid jabs for all." The government has so far approved the emergency use of Oxford-AstraZeneca, Sinopharm (China), Sputnik-V (Russia), Pfizer-BioNTech (USA/Germany) and Crona Vac (China) vaccines. 'Covid to fizzle out in another year' "Covid-19 will disappear as a pandemic or epidemic. It may either disappear totally like SARS-CoV-1 or become a seasonal disease like another four Coronavirus strains which affects 30% of the global population every year in the form of common cold and fever," said Dr Zakir. Read:CPD dialogue calls for urgent cash transfers to COVID-hit households "This will happen because, in another year, too many people will be exposed to the infection from the viral strain SARS-CoV-2 and will develop immunity to the virus. The other four Coronavirus strains which infect people will also impart partial immunity to SARS-CoV-2. Also, some people have an innate resistance to a disease for different reasons."

Amid the growing trend in both the Coronavirus infections and fatalities, Bangladesh logged 41 more deaths, pushing up the death toll to 12,660. Besides, health authorities detected 1,765 new cases after testing 18,250 samples during the period. The country’s daily death record remained below 40 since May 25 while it stayed below 50 since May 9. With the new cases, the total caseload rose to 8,02,305, said a handout of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS). The daily infection rate slightly increased to 9.47 percent from Monday’s 9.41 percent while the mortality rate remained static at 1.58 percent. The country has so far tested 59,65,763 samples. Read:Covid: WHO renames UK and other variants with Greek letters The DGHS handout says 92.50% of the people infected till now have recovered, including 1,779 who tested negative during the period. Bangladesh reported its first Coronavirus cases on March 8 last year and the first death on the 18th of that month.

A growing number of coronavirus cases and an alarming uptrend in the daily infection rate are posing big challenges to Bangladesh in its fight against the deadly virus. A 2.75 percent rise in the infection rate was recorded on Sunday (17.65 percent) compared to 14.9 percent a day earlier. The country’s health authorities reported 3,908 new cases and 35 Covid-related deaths during a 24-hour period until Sunday morning. Now, the local fatality tally stands at 8,904, according to a handout of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS). The country reported its first coronavirus-related death on March 18 last year. Also read: Covid-19: Bangladesh records 3-month high 39 deaths; 3,674 fresh cases Bangladesh, which announced its first cases on March 8 last year, has so far reported 595,714 infections. However, the mortality rate was recorded at 1.4 percent on Sunday which was 1.5 percent on Saturday. So far, 535,941 patients (89.97 percent) have recovered, including 2,019 in the last 24 hours, according to DGHS. So far, 4,588,830 samples, including 22,136 in the past 24 hours, have been tested. Also read: Global Covid-19 cases top 126.6 million Coronavirus cases were first reported in China in December 2019. Until Sunday, countries around the world confirmed 126.6 million cases with 2.77 million fatalities, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Fight against Covid Along with a countrywide vaccination drive, the government has taken a tougher stance to tackle the transmission of Covid-19. The Health Ministry sent letters to districts, directing the officials concerned to impose fines on people flouting Covid protocols. Meanwhile, the closure of schools and colleges were extended until May 23 as the situation showed no sign of improvement. Also read: 36 countries yet to get Covid jabs: WHO Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday said she wants quick steps to fight the fresh surge of Covid-19 cases. “We’ll have to take prompt steps as we did in the past,” she said at a virtual discussion. She said health guidelines and safe physical distance will have to be maintained at every programme and the use of face masks must be ensured.

Covid-19 claimed 18 more lives and infected 1,159 more in Bangladesh in the last 24 hours till Sunday morning, showing a sharp rise both in the number of deaths and daily infections.

Bangladesh recorded 407 more Covid-19 infections until early Saturday, meaning 545,831 people have now tested positive for the virus in the country since the start of the pandemic.