Bangladesh witnessed a rapid rise in the number of daily Covid-19 deaths again to stand at 12 on Monday alone, the highest in last four months, taking the total toll from the disease to 29,174.
Besides, the country recorded 2,285 new coronavirus cases in a day, taking the total caseload to 1,980,974, according to a press release issued by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) on Monday.
The case positive rate was recorded at 16.51 percent after testing 13,842 samples across the country.
Earlier, it reported 13 deaths on 5 March and 2,584 new cases on 18 February last.
The situation is expected to deteriorate further due to the reluctance of people to follow the hygiene rules as most of the people avoid masks in public gathering, experts said.
They predict that the country may see the peak of the current wave of the deadly virus in the third week of July next ahead of the Eid festival.
Although it depends on the effectiveness of preventive measures, management of cattle markets and control on public movement are the key to the success, they added.
Dr ASM Alamgir, former chief scientific officer of the Institute of Epidemiology Disease Control and Research (IEDCR), told Bangladesh Post, “The Covid-19 infections are rising in the country as many people are not aware of wearing masks and health safety guidelines.”
“Death rates rise with the rise in infection rates,” he said, adding that people in general who received all the doses of the COVID-19 vaccine seem to have faced less difficulties from coronavirus infections.
Most of the people who have recently died caused by covid-19 infections, they were old age and faced other difficult diseases, he added.
“The infection rate is increasing mainly due to not wearing masks, and increase in social and political events,” he continued saying, infections in the country could increase further in the next three to five weeks ahead of Eid-ul-Azha. Everyone has to wear a mask. Because masks work against all kinds of variants. Also, everyone must be vaccinated”, he concluded.
The official tally showed that the virus killed 29,174 people and infected 19,80,974 so far, the statement added.
The recovery count rose to 19,08,779 after another 482 patients were discharged from the dedicated hospitals during the past one day.
From the beginning of the pandemic, 96.36 percent Covid-19 patients recovered among the infected people while 1.47 percent died, the DGHS statistics showed.
Among the 29,174 fatalities, 12,830 occurred in Dhaka division, 5,871 in Chattogram, 2,143 in Rajshahi, 3,719 in Khulna, 983 in Barishal, 1,329 in Sylhet, 1,417 in Rangpur and 882 in Mymensingh divisions.