Health authorities recorded 8,822 more Covid-19 cases in Bangladesh in 24 hours until Wednesday morning, the highest figure since the pandemic hit the country. During the period, the country lost 115 more lives to Covid, raising the death toll to 14,503, said a handout issued by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS). The country’s daily positivity rate rose to 25.13 percent from Tuesday’s 23.57 percent. Meanwhile, Bangladesh’s Covid fatality rate remained static at 1.59 percent.  The new numbers pushed the country’s caseload to 9,13,258, said the DGHS handout. READ: Covid-19: Bangladesh sees record 8,364 daily cases; loses 104 more lives However, 8,16,250 people have recovered from the disease so far, putting the country’s recovery rate at 89.38 percent. Bangladesh has been seeing an alarming spike in Covid-19 deaths and cases that prompted the government to decide to enforce a strict lockdown from Thursday. The government has issued a notification imposing restrictions on the movement of people and other activities for seven days from Thursday. The Cabinet Division issued the notification on Wednesday which will remain in force from 6 am on July 1 till 12 am on July 7.   According to the gazette, all the government non-government, autonomous and private offices will remain closed during the period.   READ: Covid-19: Bangladesh reports record 119 daily deaths  All modes of public transport, including those of road, river, railway and air, will remain suspended during the lockdown. All the shopping malls and markets will also remain closed.

Bangladesh registered 95 more Covid-related deaths in 24 hours until Wednesday that pushed up the total number of fatalities to 10,683. Besides, 4280 people were found infected during the period after testing 28,408 samples, the Directorate General of Health Services said in a handout. With the latest figure, the mortality rate rose to 1.46 percent while the infection rate declined to 15.07 percent from Tuesday’s 16.85 percent. On Monday, the country had broken all the previous records of Covid-19 deaths registering 112 fatalities.   Bangladesh reported its first coronavirus cases on March 8 last year and the first death on the 18th of that month. Health authorities have so far confirmed 732,060 cases. Among them, 635,183 people - 86.77 percent of all patients – have recovered. Also read: Covid-19 in Bangladesh: PM allocates Tk 10.50cr for affected poor April, the deadliest month April has been the deadliest month since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in the country as the highest 1637 deaths and 117,292 new cases were recorded in 21 days of the month. The virus claimed 568 lives in January this year, 281 in February and 638 in March.