Numbers keep getting grimmer
Numbers of confirmed new cases of Covid-19 and deaths from the disease set new records yesterday with officials reporting 247 deaths and 15,192 new cases.
Health experts have for over a week been saying that new cases and hospitalisations would spike partly because of the lifting of coronavirus restrictions around the Eid.
Officials yesterday reported a positivity rate of 29.82 percent after testing 50,952 individuals in the 24 hours preceding 8:00am, the highest number of tests in a day.
The previous records were 231 deaths reported on July 19 and 13,768 cases reported on July 12.
Infections and deaths caused by the virus have been setting new grim records since the Delta variant spread in the communities in May.
In Gazipur and Khagrachhari districts, the positivity rates reported yesterday were 64.73 percent and 51.21 percent. Thirteen other districts have positivity rates over 40 percent.
Twenty other districts had positivity rates between 30 and 40 percent, and 23 districts between 20 and 30 percent.
Yesterday's data suggests that transmission is the worst across Sylhet, Barishal and Chattogram divisions.
As of yesterday, the pandemic has caused 19,521 confirmed deaths and 11,79,827 infections.
Of those reported dead yesterday, 141 were male and 106 female. Of them, 72 were in Dhaka, 61 in Chattogram, 46 in Khulna, 21 in Rajshahi, 16 in Rangpur, 14 in Sylhet, 12 in Barishal and five in Mymensingh divisions.
COVID HOSPITALS AT 90 PERCENT CAPACITY
"Ninety percent of the hospital beds are occupied with patients, and our health workers are tired now," Health Minister Zahid Maleque told reporters after yesterday's cabinet meeting.
"It's unfortunate how people are going outdoors… breaking the rules and risking lives," he added, urging the authorities to be stricter in enforcing the lockdown.
"In hospitals, 70 percent of Covid patients are older people from villages and the fatality rate among them is 90 percent."
Mass vaccination will now be boosted in the wards, unions and upazilas, said the minister.
The government has taken an initiative to vaccinate the elderly people because they are reluctant to get the jabs.
Besides, the government will recruit 4,000 more doctors and nurses to cope with the situation, he said.
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