Covid scourge creeps up again
Restrictions have been imposed in several border districts due to fears that the Indian variant of the Sars-Cov-2 virus may spread there as the country yesterday recorded the highest number of daily Covid cases since April 30.
The health authorities reported 1,988 new cases after testing 20,259 samples, which put the daily positivity rate at 9.8 percent. On Tuesday, the positivity rate was 9.47 percent.
A total of 2,177 new cases were registered on April 30.
The overall positivity rate now stands at 13.44 percent, show data from the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
Another 34 people were reported dead, raising the official coronavirus death toll in the country to 12,694. The mortality rate remained static at 1.58 percent yesterday.
The border districts, however, has been doing much worse than the national average.
The district administrations in Rajshahi and Naogaon yesterday imposed restrictions, stopping all night-time activities outside of home for seven days.
The restrictions exempted emergency services, agricultural activities, mango trade and online trade.
After a meeting of the district's coronavirus monitoring committee, Rajshahi DC Abdul Jalil announced 10 types of restrictions, including closure of all businesses and vehicular movement between 7:00pm and 8:00am every day until June 9.
The positivity rate in Rajshahi is at 16 percent, while daily positivity rate went up to as high as 50 percent on May 31.
In Naogaon, restrictions will be imposed between 6:00pm and 6:00am. All types of transport and NGO activities will remain closed in Naogaon municipality and Niamatpur upazila, but local markets of essentials can operate between 7:00am and 2:30pm.
Government offices and banks would operate as per government directives while private industries would operate following the health rules.
In both the districts, mango farmers and traders were allowed to run businesses maintaining physical distancing.
Naogaon has a positivity rate of 13 percent, while the daily positivity rate went up to 42 percent on May 27.
According to the published report of the health department in Rangpur division, the daily positivity rate of Covid-19 infection rose to 20 percent for the first time in the division since the second wave.
The rate is higher in Dinajpur, 25.86 percent.
The two RT-PCR labs at Rangpur Medical College Hospital and M Abdur Rahim Medical College Hospital tested 378 samples collected from all over the division. Of them, 78 samples tested positive.
As many as 30 of those positive samples were from Dinajpur alone.
Eleven of the positive cases were from Kurigram -- but the district had tested only 31 samples, meaning one-third of the samples tested positive.
In Rangpur, 109 samples were tested and 25 came positive.
There are 26 ICU beds in two hospitals in the division, and 23 of those were occupied yesterday, said officials concerned.
Meanwhile, the bordering areas in Chuadanga's Damurhuda upazila were put on lockdown by the local administration, said Upazila Nirbahi Officer Dilara Rahman.
The upazila health and family planning officer Abu Hena Mohammad Jamal said even though people were showing symptoms, there is a general reluctance to go for the test. The district has a positivity rate of 13 percent, but yesterday 118 people were tested and 28 samples came out positive, putting the daily positivity rate at 23.7 percent.
Dilara Rahman said seven of the 11 Covid-infected people had returned from India through Darshana check post. They are residents of Damarhuda.
Four wards in Rajapalong union of Cox's Bazar's Ukhiya upazila was declared red zone yesterday. Rajapalong hosts the Kutupalong refugee camp.
All NGO activities and private activities will remain suspended in the red zone, while only kitchen markets, pharmacies and convenience stores can operate between six in the morning and four in the afternoon.
Ukhiya has seen the second highest rate of detection in the district.
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