Covid death toll surges past 21,000 in Bangladesh

The country’s Covid death toll has crossed 21,000 with 246 more people dying of the viral disease in 24 hours till 8:00am on Monday.

Believed to be triggered by the Delta variant of coronavirus, Bangladesh is currently witnessing the worst spell of Covid infections since the start of the outbreak in March 2020.

A total of 15,989 new cases were detected in the 24 hours till Monday morning, taking the total number of cases to 12.80 lakh.

The daily test positivity remained at over 30 per cent with 53,462 samples tested in the 24 hours.

Health experts, however, said that the actual situation had not been reflected in the official figure as people were mostly denied any diagnosis opportunity.

The official number of deaths is far below the actual level because of the government’s policy of not showing cases that are not RT-PCR positive as Covid cases.

No testing technology is 100 per cent sensitive while efficient use of the technologies could make a great difference in the outcome, said experts.

Medical college hospitals, however, give a daily death count of people dying with Covid symptoms who are mainly RT-PCR negative but treated as Covid patients after their infection is confirmed by other tests.

The daily death toll of people with Covid symptoms, reported by medical college hospitals, largely equals the daily figure of confirmed deaths.

The new deaths occurred across 56 districts, nearly 90 per cent of the country’s administrative region.

Dhaka district reported the highest number of 36 deaths in the 24 hours while Cumilla reported 19 deaths, Brahmanbaria 12,  Chattogram 11 and Bogura 10.

The divisions of Rangpur, Barishal and Sylhet reported 30 per cent or above test positivity while Dhaka, Mymensingh, Chattogram and Khulna reported over 25 per cent test positivity.

Rajshahi division reported about 20 per cent test positivity.

Bangladesh is three days away from ending its 14-day long fresh restrictions, disrupted severely with the travel of hundreds of thousands of factory workers after their offices resumed operation.

The country reported the 4th largest daily death figure and 5th largest daily cases in until 8:00pm on Monday, according to the real time reference website Worldometers.

The number of active cases has more than doubled in about a month in the country.

Hospitals with their chronic shortages of manpower have long been overwhelmed with the rising number of cases.

In the capital, the centre point of Covid treatment, Covid patients ran from hospital to hospital looking for vacant seats even after dedicated Covid hospitals followed the thumb rule of accepting only critical cases.

Government hospitals accounted for 181 of the new deaths and private hospitals 49 deaths while 15 died at home and one other on the way to hospital, according to the DGHS daily Covid report.

A total of 137 of the 246 fresh dead were men while the rest were women.

Dhaka division reported highest 76 deaths, followed by Chattogram with 64 deaths, Khulna with 30 deaths, Rajshahi with 22 deaths, Barishal with 16 deaths, Sylhet and Rangpur with 14 deaths each and Mymensingh with 10 deaths.

One hundred and twenty-two of the fresh dead were aged above 60 years while 71 were between 51 years and 60 years, 33 between 41 years and 50 years, 13 between 31 years and 40 years, 4 between 21 years and 30 years, one between 11 years and 20 years and two under 10 years, according to the DGHS update.

News Courtesy:

https://www.newagebd.net/article/145237/covid-death-toll-surges-past-21000-in-bangladesh