Staff Correspondent
Bangladesh recorded 22 more deaths from Covid-19 and 1,292 new cases in the 24 hours between 8am Wednesday and 8am Thursday. The latest figures took the death toll from the deadly disease to 12,480 and the total number of cases to 794,985 — since the pandemic made landfall in Bangladesh in March last year, according to a daily Covid-19 update issued on Thursday. Of the fresh 22 deceased — 14 men and eight women — five each were from Dhaka, Chittagong, and Rajshahi divisions, three from Sylhet, and two each from Barisal and Rangpur divisions. Eighteen of them died at state-run hospitals and four at private hospitals across the country. So far, 9,019 men (72.27%) and 3,461 women (27.73%) have died of Covid-19 in Bangladesh. The mortality rate against the total number of cases detected currently stands at 1.57%. The Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) said 15,710 samples were collected from suspected Covid-19 patients between Wednesday and Thursday mornings. As many as 15,915 samples, including the pending ones, were tested at 497 authorized labs — government and private — across the country. The number of positive results took the daily infection rate to 8.12%. To date, 5,887,268 tests have been conducted in the country, which left the overall test positivity rate at 13.50%. The health authorities said 1,291 people recovered from the disease over the preceding 24 hours. So far, 735,157 patients — 92.47% of all infected — have made full recovery across the country. Alarming surge On March 8, 2020, the health authorities had reported the first three cases of Covid-19 in Bangladesh. According to month-wise data from last year, 51 Covid-19 cases were detected in March 2020; 7,616 in April; 39,486 in May; 98,330 in June; 92,178 in July; 75,335 in August; 50,483 in September; 44,205 in October; 57,248 in November; and 48,578 in December. The beginning of this year had witnessed a drastic fall of Covid-19 cases around the country but the trend lasted for only two months — 21,629 in January and 11,077 in February. After that, the country witnessed a sharp increase in infection as 65,079 cases were reported in March and 147,837 cases in April. On the other hand, according to month-wise data from last year, five Covid-19 deaths were reported in March 2020; 163 in April; 482 in May; 1,197 in June; 1,264 in July; 1,179 in August; 970 in September; 672 in October; 721 in November; and 915 in December. And according to this year’s month-wise data, 568 Covid-19 fatalities were recorded in January; 281 in February; and 638 in March. Meanwhile, authorities concerned on Tuesday confirmed that two Covid-19 patients had been found infected with the black fungus disease — adding to the concern of a population already in crisis mode due to the pandemic. One of them is still undergoing treatment at the hospital, while the other, who had contracted Covid-19 a month back, died three days ago. Black fungus, also known as mucormycosis, is normally a rare infection, which has a mortality rate of 50%. According to doctors, there is a link with the steroids used to treat Covid-19, and diabetics are at particular risk. The fungus seems to strike 12 to 18 days after recovery from Covid-19. Global situation The severe acute respiratory illness caused by a new coronavirus strain, Covid-19 broke out in China’s Wuhan city in late December of 2019 and quickly spread throughout the world. The outbreak of the virus, which was later named Sars-CoV-2, then became a global pandemic in less than three months. The fast spreading coronavirus has claimed 3,513,830 lives and infected 169,136,682 people across the world till Thursday afternoon, according to Worldometer, a reference website that provides counters and real-time statistics for diverse topics. As many as 150,781,313 people have recovered so far from Covid-19 which has spread to 220 countries and territories across the planet.
