Covid Transmission: Positivity rate drops for 10 days straight

The positivity rate has declined for the 10th consecutive day yesterday.

The country recorded 10,420 new Covid cases yesterday but over the last 10 days Bangladesh has been recording over 12,000 new daily cases on average.

Yesterday, the positivity rate was 23.45 percent while it was around 30 percent on August 2.

Experts said this decline was an impact of the countrywide lockdown that was lifted yesterday. They warned the infection may rise again as more people would go outside now.

Yesterday, the country logged 237 Covid-19 deaths, which matched a previous daily record on August 5, taking the death toll to 23,398.

The number of deaths on the first 11 days of this month was high -- more than 246 a day on average -- because of higher infection rates, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).

In the preceding 11 days, more than 214 Covid deaths were logged a day on average.

With the latest count, the total number of confirmed cases reached at 1,386,742.

Of yesterday's deceased, 134 were males, while 103 were females.

Dhaka division saw the highest -- 105 -- deaths, followed by 54 in Chattogram, 23 in Sylhet, 20 in Khulna, 11 in Mymensingh, 10 in Rajshahi, eight in Barishal, and six in Rangpur.

Yesterday, a total of 1,107 Covid-19 patients were in the intensive care units (ICU), occupying more than 83 percent of the total 1,331 beds there, according to the DGHS data.

Meanwhile, a total of 9,976 Covid-19 patients were receiving treatment in general beds. The general bed occupancy rate was more than 58 percent against a total of 17,131.

The new Covid-19 cases and deaths had been galloping since the Delta variant was detected in the country on May 8.

To control the virus transmission, the government imposed different types of restrictions on people's movement since July 1.