No deaths were registered in the country in 24 hours from Covid-19 till 8am Saturday. Bangladesh has registered no new deaths from Covid-19 in the past day for the first time since April 3, 2020.
The positivity rate has also been below five percent for around two months. The World Health Organization (WHO) considers a pandemic to be under control if the infection rate remains below five percent for two consecutive weeks.
The overall Covid-19 situation at present marks a significant improvement due to the pragmatic leadership and directives of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Talking to the Bangladesh Post, Professor Dr Mohammad Shahidullah, President of the National Technical Advisory Committee on Covid-19 said, “No death is desirable. This is undoubtedly good news and we are very glad.”
“This day has been achieved due to the tireless hard work of the doctors and nurses, effective vaccination programmes conducted across the country, timely measures adopted by the Prime Minister including lockdown, closure of borders, isolation of infected patients, quarantine and strict instructions to maintain health guidelines.,” he added.
At the same time, he said that all these measures that have brought down the casualties to zero should remain consistent.
Be-Nazir Ahmed, former Director (disease control) of Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) told Bangladesh Post, “A day without death since the beginning of the pandemic is definitely a great achievement for us. However, we must maintain this condition.”
He also said that the surge in Covid-19 cases in European countries despite the mass vaccination programme is a concern for us.
“Some 80 percent of the adults of our country must be vaccinated within the next 3-4 months to maintain this situation. The classical measures that include social distancing and following health guidelines should also be ensured.”
The total number of deaths has reached to 27,946 with the latest figure.
The country recorded 178 new infections in the meantime taking the total number of people infected to 1,573,889, according to a press release issued by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) on Saturday.
The current positivity rate stands 1.18 percent and the overall positivity rate stands at 14.70 percent.
In addition, the death rate now stands at 1.78 percent in the country, added the release.
A total of 15,107 samples were tested across the country till 8am Saturday.
Some 190 Covid-19 patients have recovered during this period. A total of 1,538,006 people have recovered from the virus so far and the recovery rate stands at 97.72 percent.
As of Saturday, 5,158,599 people died of Covid-19 across the world and 257,100,256 have been infected so far, according to Worldometer.