Bangladesh witnessed 166 more Covid deaths and 6,364 new coronavirus cases in the 24-hour period till Friday morning.
With the latest statistics from the Directorate General of Health Services, the country’s total Covid death toll has hit 18,851 and the total number of infections 11,46,564.
The test positivity rate on the day was 31.05 per cent.
Meanwhile, the government on Friday morning began the ‘strictest restrictions’ on public movement and businesses across Bangladesh to arrest the surge in Covid infections and deaths in the country.
The country, over the past few weeks, has been reporting around 200 Covid deaths and thousands of cases almost every day.
During the Eid-ul-Azha festival, between July 20 and 22, a total of 560 people died and 22,890 were infected with the novel coronavirus.
On July 20 200 people died and 11,579 tested Covid positive, on the Eid day 173 died and 7,614 tested positive while on July 22 187 people succumbed to the disease and 3,697 tested positive for the infection.
On July 20, 21 and 22 the test positivity rate was 29.31 per cent, 30.48 per cent and 32.19 per cent respectively while the number of samples tested were 39,510, 25,625 and 11,486 respectively.
The number of specimens tested on July 19 was 45,012.
The government had relaxed restrictions for eight days since July 14 midnight on the occasion of Eid and to facilitate the Eid economic activities despite the fear of experts that such move would further deteriorate the Covid calamity.
During the 24-hour reporting period till 8:00am Friday, 20,493 samples were tested across Bangladesh, with the country testing 73,96,867 samples in total as of the day.
Of the fresh dead, 95 were male and 71 female.
One hundred and twenty-three of them died at public hospitals, 39 at private facilities and four at their home, according to government statistics.
Division-wise, Dhaka logged the highest 60 deaths while 33 each died in Khulna and Chattogram, 12 in Rangpur, 10 in Barishal, eight in Sylhet, seven in Rajshahi and three in Mymensingh.
The highest 41.06 per cent positivity rate was recorded in Sylhet division, followed by 40.66 per cent in Barishal, 38.4 per cent in Rangpur, 33.02 per cent in Khulna, 31.54 per cent in Rajshahi, 30.9 per cent in Chattogram, 29.68 per cent in Dhaka and the lowest 26.1 per cent in Mymensingh.
Among the districts that witnessed high test positivity rates, Habiganj recorded 65.62 per cent positivity, Sunamganj 64.28 per cent, Magura 58.06 per cent, Narsingdi 52.78 per cent, Shariatpur 51.26 per cent, Barishal 47.18 per cent, Bhola 47.11 per cent and Faridpur 46.99 per cent.
Among the deceased, three were aged between 91 years and 100 years, 10 between 81 years and 90 years, 27 between 71 years and 80 years, the highest 46 between 61 years and 70 years, 32 between 51 years and 60 years, 24 between 41 years and 50 years, 15 between 31 years and 40 years, seven between 21 years and 30 years and two between 11 years and 20 years, said the DGHS release.
In the period, 9,006 people recovered from the viral disease, with the total figure in the country reaching 9,78,616.
According to the DGHS data, in every 10 lakh people in the country till now, 111.47 have died of Covid-19, 6,780 tested positive for the disease while 5,786.9 recovered from the infection.
Besides the deaths from Covid, reports received from different districts of the country said that a good number of patients had died with Covid symptoms at the Covid units of hospitals in those districts.
The DGHS press release did not, however, mention the number of deaths with Covid symptoms.
Reports received from eight districts — Khulna, Rajshshi, Kushtia, Barishal, Satkhira, Chattogram, Mymensingh and Cumilla — said that 101 patients died at the Covid units of hospitals in those districts in the 24 hours till Friday morning.
Of the deceased, 48 were Covid-positive patients, 52 had Covid symptoms and one had post-covid complications, according to the reports.
