Rising covid rate: Flood shelters left vulnerable
The health directorate yesterday reported 7.38 percent Covid positivity rate, the highest in the last four months.
A top health official said the transmission might spread faster among people living in shelter centres in the flood-hit areas for not following health safety rules properly.
Most of the cases in the latest spike, however, show "mild illness" with lower hospitalisation rate and no mortality, the official said.
Prof Tahmina Shirin, director of the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research, told The Daily Star, "The transmission has been increasing. But it may be faster among those living in shelter centres."
"The rise in transmission was obvious as none of us was maintaining health rules, though the Covid-19 has not been eliminated from the country."
Urging people to wear masks, she stressed the need for taking extra caution for immunocompromised people.
The Covid-19 cases in the flood-affected Sylhet division, meanwhile, were not reported yesterday, according to the Directorate General of Health Services.
The previous day, only 39 samples were tested in the division.
Yesterday, 596 new Covid cases were detected countrywide, which is also the highest after March 4 when 604 cases were logged.
Yesterday's positivity rate was the highest after February 20 when the rate was 7.82 percent.
Over 86 percent of the tests were done in Dhaka city yesterday.
A positivity rate below five percent for two weeks at a stretch reflects the virus transmission was under control, according to the World Health Organisation.
The country witnessed the third wave of Covid-19 in January-March this year. After that, the positivity rate came below one percent. Since June 2, the transmission has steadily been rising.
With the latest count, the total number of confirmed cases rose to 19,56,327. With no Covid-related deaths reported yesterday, the number of fatalities remained unchanged at29,131.
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