Bangladesh logged another Covid-linked death with 373 fresh infections in 24 hours till Monday morning.
With the detection of the fresh cases after testing 17, 271 samples, the daily case positivity rate rose to 2.16 per cent from Sunday’s 1.57 per cent during the period, said the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
The latest deceased was a woman aged between 51 to 60 years and from the Dhaka division.
The fresh numbers reported on Sunday took the country’s total fatalities to 28,061 while the caseload mounted to 15,83,626.
Of the 12 deaths recorded from December 20 to December, 26, 8.3 per cent received Covid vaccines while 92.7 per cent did not, the DGHS mentioned.
Comorbidities among the deceased patients increased 8.3 per cent this week compared to the previous one. Comorbidity means the simultaneous presence of two or more diseases or medical conditions in a patient.
Meanwhile, the mortality rate remained static at 1.77 per cent during the period.
Besides, the recovery rate declined a bit to 97.73 per cent with the recovery of 323 more patients during the 24-hour period.
On Sunday, Bangladesh logged four Covid-linked deaths with 268 fresh infections in 24 hours.
Though the deaths remained below five since December 13, the daily cases remained mostly over 250, according to data provided by the DGHS.
On December 9, Bangladesh again logged zero Covid-related death after nearly three weeks as the pandemic was apparently showing signs of easing.
The country reported this year’s first zero Covid-related death in a single day on November 20 along with 178 infections since the pandemic broke out in Bangladesh in March 2020.
Bangladesh reported the highest number of daily fatalities of 264 on August 5 this year, while the highest daily caseload was 16,230 on July 28 this year.
Possible fresh wave
Noted Virologist Professor Dr Nazrul Islam told UNB as two people in the country have already been identified with Omicron variant, its wave may come to Bangladesh. “We’ve to be very careful about those who are coming from abroad.”
He said the Covid infection has started increasing again and it may continue to grow slowly till February next. “The country is likely to face a fresh wave in March with the rise in temperature. The number of cases will go up alarmingly in the middle of that month.”
The expert said usually Covid infections remain low during winter due to the intervention of many other respiratory viruses and flues like influenza.
Prof Mushtaq Hussain said Bangladesh is at a high risk of witnessing a wave of Omicron in the days to come like the African and European countries. “Omicron is already in the community transmission stage in some African and European countries. So, there’s no reason to think that Bangladesh would not experience an outbreak of Omicron,” he said.
Though there is no fresh case of Omicron after two imported ones in the country, he said the infection rate may continue to surge after a few days.
Noted microbiologist Bijon Kumar Sil said Omicron will gradually spread to different areas of the country after deepening its roots.
Source: United News of Bangladesh