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Country sees lowest Covid infections in 1.5 years


Published : 30 Oct 2021 10:03 PM | Updated : 31 Oct 2021 01:42 PM

The Covid-19 situation in Bangladesh has been improving significantly for the last few weeks. The country on Saturday registered the lowest daily Covid infections in more than one and a half years.

The previous lowest daily Covid infections were 139 on April 12 in 2020.

There were 166 new infections in 24 hours till 8am Saturday, taking the total number of infected people to 1,569,328, according to a press release issued by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) on Saturday.

Experts commended the timely and impactful measures taken by the government in achieving this achievement and bringing the virus under hard control. The measures have been adopted adequately and implemented efficiently to curb the spread of the coronavirus, they added.

The government has ensured mass vaccination, social awareness, corona dedicated hospital facility, telemedicine service, rapid corona test facility, social distancing and other health guidelines to curb the infections and deaths in the country. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has ordered the authorities concerned to vaccinate all the citizens of Bangladesh within the quickest possible time.

The government will start the inoculations of students, aged between 12 and 17, with Pfizer-BioNTech’s Covid shots in Dhaka on November 1.

Health Minister Zahid Maleque on Saturday said, “Bangladesh plans to vaccinate 40,000 students a day during the campaign, which will gradually be expanded countrywide.”

Bangladesh began the administration of Covid-19 vaccines on 27th January in 2021 while mass vaccination started on 7th February in 2021. 

Dr Be-Nazir Ahmed, former director of Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), told the Bangladesh Post, “The mass-vaccination campaign help control the Covid situation. The government has pledged and taken initiative to vaccinate everyone in Bangladesh.”

“The timely lockdowns implemented by the government also played a vital role in bringing the virus under control. From then, we have seen the numbers of infected people go down gradually,” he added.

Dr Be-Nazir Ahmed further said, “The natural immunity among the people has also risen. It helps fighting effectively against the deadly virus.”

Former advisor to the WHO, Muzaherul Huq, told the Bangladesh Post that the people had been effectively encouraged to maintain health guidelines which have gradually led the numbers to fall.

“The government and health experts have instructed the people of Bangladesh to follow the health guidelines strictly. People also followed the guidelines so the coronavirus cases have been going down significantly. However, it has to be maintained further,” he said.

Bangladesh registered 8 more deaths from Covid-19 in 24 hours till 8am Saturday. This takes the total number of deaths to 27,862. The current positivity rate is 1.25 pc.

The death rate now stands at 1.78 percent in the country, as per the DGHS press release. Around 13,240 samples were tested in 24 hours till 8am Saturday.

Among the eight deceased, six were men and two were women.

Around 181 people recovered from the virus during this time. A total of 1,533,147 people have recovered so far from the virus. The recovery rate stands at 97.69 pc, according to the release.

As of Saturday, 5,007,569 people died of Covid-19 across the world and 246,899,984 have been infected so far, according to Worldometer.

Earlier, in response to the emergence of the virus, Bangladesh admittedly reduced international and domestic flights, imposed thermal scanner checking, wearing facemasks, social distancing guidelines and shut down schools. Later, the restrictions were lifted or minimised as the Covid situation has been improved in the country.

However, everyone has been strictly asked to wear mask and maintain social distancing and other health guidelines.

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