1 person died every 14 mins in 3 days in B’desh

By Sumi Khan

Dhaka, April 19 (SocialNews.XYZ) In Bangladesh, where the overall Covid-19 death toll currently stood at 10,385, one infected person died every 14 minutes in the last three days.

On Sunday, the country registered 102 new fatalities, the highest single-day spike since the first reported Covid-19 death on March 18, 2020.

Both on Saturday and Friday, there were 101 new deaths.

Of the deceased, 59 were male and 43 were female. Sixty-three of them were aged above 60, 23 were between the age range 51-60, 14 were between 41-50, and two people were aged between 31-40.

Sixty-eight of the victims were reported in Dhaka, 22 in Chittagong, four each in Mymensingh and Barisal, three in Rajshahi, and one in Khulna.

The seven-day average of single-day Covid-19 deaths, with Sunday's tally, shot up to 92.2 per cent.

Meanwhile, the Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) hospital with 1,000-bed capacity was inaugurated on Sunday morning as a dedicated COovid facility with all necessary facilities to treat infected patients.

At the iauguration, Zahid Maleque, Health and Family Welfare Minister, told IANS: "Bangladesh is facing a second wave of the pandemic like other countries of the world, and almost all hospitals in the country are filled with Covid-19 patients as both infections and fatalities are gradually increasing.

"It is urgent to extend healthcare facilities to treat Covid-19 patients... The government has prepared the DNCC hospital as a dedicated one within a short time installing all modern equipment to protect the lives of the coronavirus positive patients."

As a second wave of the pandemic hit Bangladesh, the government enforced a lockdown from April 5 for a week.

The second phase of the lockdown that began on April 14 will continue until the midnight of April 21.

However, the Covid-19 National Technical Advisory Committee has recommended extending ongoing strict lockdown for one more week in the wake of the unabated resurgence.

The next decision can be taken after observing the situation following the end of the extended lockdown, the committee said in a meeting on Sunday night.

The advisors also suggested preparing the lockdown exit plan gradually as well.

Till Sunday afternoon, a total of 5.6 million people had received the first dose and 1.1 million received the second dose of a Covid-19 vaccine.

The daily infection rate stands at 19 per cent, while the overall rate is 13.9 per cent in the country.

The mortality rate remains at 1.44 per cent, while the recovery rate slightly tumbled to 85.5 per cent.

With the updated data, the country's overall Covid-19 caseload currently stood at 718,950.

Source: IANS