COVID-19 claimed the lives of 20 more people across the country in the 24 hours till 8:00am Friday, raising the death toll to 194 in the past six days.
It was the highest weekly death toll in the previous seven weeks with still one day to go in the current 38th week of COVID-19 infections in the country.
On average, 32 people died of COVID-19 daily in the past six days as the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths increased in recent days.
The Directorate General of Health Services in its Friday’s daily update said that with the 20 new deaths, Bangladesh’s COVID-19 death toll reached 6,544.
Besides, 2,273 more COVID-19 patients were detected in the period, taking the total number of cases in the country to 4,58,711.
Bangladesh on March 8 confirmed its first three cases of COVID-19 and on March 18 the first death from the disease.
The DGHS said that 16,378 samples were tested across the country in the past 24 hours and 13.88 per cent of them were found COVID-19 positive.
The country’s current test positivity rate is 16.81 per cent. The positivity rate had declined for some time but went above 13 per cent in past two weeks.
The positivity rate was less than 12 per cent between the 29th and 35th weeks but went above 12 per cent in the 36th week and above 13 per cent in 37th week.
The rate in the ongoing week is 14.23 per cent.
Last week, the weekly death was 177, which was the highest in seven weeks.
It is feared that the weekly death toll will go above 200 by the end of the current 38th week for the first time in last nine weeks.
The DGHS said that among the 20 new deaths, 10 were in Dhaka division, three each in Chattogram and Barishal, two in Khulna and one each was in Rajshahi and Rangpur divisions.
Among the deceased, 10 were aged above 60 years, seven between 51 and 60 years and one each in the age groups of 41-50 years, 31-40 years and 21-30 years.
So far, 3,73,676 COVID-19 patients have recovered in the country, including 2,223 in the past 24 hours.
The country had 78,491 active cases on Friday.
