Covid cases top 9 lakh in Bangladesh

Bangladesh on Tuesday surpassed the 9 lakh-mark in the confirmed cases of coronavirus with 7,666 people testing positive in the last 24 hours.

The country reached the grim milestone more than 15 months after the country confirmed its first-ever coronavirus cases in March last year.

It just took a month to reach the mark after the caseload crossed 8 lakh on May 31.

The number of fresh infections is the second highest ever single-day figure since the country logged highest 8,364 cases on Monday.

The daily infection rate, showing a double-digit trend for the consecutive 26 days, also soared to 23.97 per cent, which is the highest since August 5 last year.

In a 24-hour period until 8:00am on Tuesday, the country saw 112 deaths from Covid-19 with the mortality rate remaining at 1.59 per cent, the Directorate General of Health Services said in a press release.

The new toll is the second highest figure followed by the highest 119 deaths on Sunday.

Bangladesh reported its first cases on March 8 last year and the first coronavirus-related death on March 18 that year. So far, the country has seen 14,388 deaths and confirmed 9,04,436 cases.

Until Tuesday, 8,11,700 patients (89.75 per cent) recovered.

The total number of tests carried out since the pandemic broke out in the country is 65,73,822, including 31,982 tests in the last 24 hours. The overall infection rate is gradually increasing and currently stands at 13.76 per cent.

Among the latest deaths, Khulna division saw the highest 35 deaths, followed by 22 in Dhaka and 21 in Rajshahi.

Besides, 16 died in Chattogram division, 10 in Rangpur, four in Mymensingh, three in Barishal, and one in Sylhet.

The majority of the victims (10,253) are men and the rest (4,135) are women.