27 more die, 835 get Covid

Twenty-seven people have died from Covid-19 in the last 24 hours till 8:00am yesterday, read a press release issued by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).

With this, the total number of deaths reached 7,626 and the death rate was at 1.48 percent.

At least 835 new infections were recorded in the meantime, taking the total number of infected people to 516,019, added the release.

Against a total of 10,925 tests in those 24 hours, the positivity rate was 7.64 percent and the overall positivity rate is 15.83 percent.

At least 978 Covid-19 patients have recovered as well in this period.

The total number of recoveries now stands at 460,598 and the recovery rate at 89.26 percent.

Among the 27 dead, 16 were males and 11 were females.

Three of them aged between 41 and 50 years, five between 51 and 60, and 19 were above 60 years, added the release.

On March 8, authorities reported first three Covid-19 cases in the country while the first death was reported on March 18.

Covid-19 transmission and casualties rose to the highest during June and July which started to decrease in the following months.

Again it started rising since the second week of November. During last one week, the infection rate was decreasing again.

The government has arranged some 98 million doses of vaccines -- 30 million Oxford-AstraZeneca's vaccines from Serum Institute of India and 68 million from the Gavi.

Officials said they were expecting the first shipment of Oxford vaccine will reach the country by mid-February.