Sombre milestone of two lakh virus cases

The country yesterday crossed the grim milestone of 2 lakh novel coronavirus cases with no visible sign of decline in the number of virus infections.

The country reported 2,709 more fresh cases with 24.80 percent infection rate and 34 more deaths in 24 hours till 2:30pm yesterday.

Bangladesh is the 17th country in the world to hit the 2 lakh mark in Covid-19 cases.

The country still remains the 17th worst coronavirus affected country in the world in terms of number of cases.

Germany is in the 16 position with 202,345 cases, having just 279 more than Bangladesh.

Bangladesh's journey to 2 lakh cases took 133 days while the jump from 1 lakh to 2 lakh cases have come in just 30 days.

The country hit the 1 lakh mark in 103 days of reporting the first three coronavirus case on March 8.

The number of coronavirus cases in Bangladesh reached 153,277 on July 2 while 48,789 new cases were added in just 16 days.

It took 29 days for the novel coronavirus cases in Bangladesh to surpass the 100-mark. The figure reached 123 on April 6 with 35 fresh cases.

It took 74 days for the virus cases in the country to cross the 1 lakh mark from 100. In India, Covid-19 cases increased from 100 to one lakh in 64 days.

Speaking at the regular press briefing yesterday, Prof Dr Nasima Sultana, additional director general of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), said 2,709 new Covid-19 patients were identified in the 24-hour period, raising the number of confirmed cases in the country to 202,066.

She said 10,923 samples were tested during the same period.

A total of 1017,674 samples were tested in the country since the detection of the virus on March 8, she added.

Nasima also informed that 1,373 people have recovered from novel coronavirus during the 24-hour period, bringing the total number of recoveries to 110,098.

In comparison with the tests conducted in the 24-hour period, the infection rate is 24.80 percent while the rate is 19.86 percent against total tests carried out so far, she said.

She said 34 more people died of Covid-19 during the same period. Of them, 29 are men and five women.

Among the total 2,581 dead, 2,040 are men and 551 women.

Nasima also said the recovery rate is 54.49 against the total number of detected cases and the mortality rate is 1.28 percent.

On Friday, Bangladesh reported 51 deaths from the virus and 3,034 new cases.

Health experts said Covid-19 positive case rate is now higher in the country than in the past as the transmission is growing gradually due to a lack of effective preventive measures.

Prof Nazrul Islam, former vice-chancellor of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU), said novel coronavirus transmission is still on the rise, but the number of tests has declined sharply over the last two weeks.

He voiced concern that the fall in the number of tests is only contributing to the spread of the virus since many infected people are remaining undetected, and they are moving freely.

The expert said there is no alternative to increasing the number of tests and identifying the infected people to contain the virus transmission.