Bangladesh again logged zero Covid-related deaths after nearly three weeks as the pandemic is apparently showing signs of easing amid the emergence of a new variant of the virus, Omicron. The country reported this year’s first zero Covid-related death in a single day on November 20 along with 178 infections since the pandemic broke out in Bangladesh in March 2020. With the latest cases, the daily-case positivity rate declined to 1.22 per cent from Wednesday’s 1.35 per cent, said the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS). The total fatalities remained static at 28,016 while the caseload mounted to 15,78 550, with the fresh number of cases. Meanwhile, the mortality rate declined to 1.77 per cent during the period. Also read: Zero death from Covid brings relief for Bangladesh The fresh cases were detected after testing 21, 496 samples, amid the growing concern over the new ‘Omicron’ variant of coronavirus. Besides, the recovery rate remained unchanged at 97.78 per cent with the recovery of 287 more patients during the 24-hour period. Bangladesh reported the highest number of daily fatalities of 264 on August 5 this year, while the highest daily caseload was 16,230 on July 28 this year.

Covid-19 in Bangladesh continued its relentless havoc as the country saw 241 more deaths and 10,299 new cases in 24 hours till Sunday morning. The fresh numbers took the country’s total fatality to 22,652 and the total caseload to 1,353,695, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS). The new cases were detected after testing 42,003 samples which lowered the country’s case positivity rate to 24.52% from Saturday’s 25.65%. The country overwhelmed by the Delta variant Covid surge has been seeing over 200 deaths daily since July 25 while over 13,000 cases daily on average for a week. However, the case fatality rate remained unchanged at 1.67% during the period, said the DGHS. Besides, the recovery rate rose to 89.05% from 88.89 % with 16,627 new patients recovering from Covid-19 during this time. Of the recent deaths, 105 people died in Dhaka alone, the highest ever in the division. Deaths in Bangladesh’s capital on a single day crossed the grim landmark of 100 for the first time on Saturday with 101 deaths. Read: Govt eases lockdown from Aug 11 with some guidelines to follow Besides, 59 people died in Chattogram division, 30 in Khulna, 12 each in Rajshahi and Barishal, 10 in Rangpur, seven in Sylhet and six died in Mymensingh. Of them, 128 were men and 113 women. As per their age breakup, one was below 10 years, one between 11-20, nine between 21-30, 17 between 31-40, 28 between 41-50, 54 between 51-60, 70 between 61-70, 49 between 71-80, nine between 81-90 and three were between 91-100 years of age.

A man, who was waiting in a long queue to give his samples for Covid test, collapsed and declared dead at Brahmanbaria General Hospital on Wednesday, a doctor and his family said. The deceased was identified as Iqbal, 43, son of Shahidul of Bihair village in Sadar upazila. Read: Covid-19 sample collection from home at only Tk 500 According to Iqbal’s family he had been suffering from fever and cold for the past one week. On Wednesday, he went to BMA building of Brahmanbaria General Hospital for Covid test. At one stage, Iqbal lost his consciousness and fell on the floor while standing in a long queue. Read: icddr,b opens sample collection centre at Dhanmondi Later he was taken to the emergency section of the hospital where the doctors declared him dead. Solaiman Mia, duty doctor of the hospital, said “The man has been standing in the long queue to provide his samples for Covid test but he suddenly collapsed and died.”