Fatalities In COVID-19 Surpass 14,000 Mark In Bangladesh

Bangladesh registered 77 additional deaths from the coronavirus on Saturday, taking the death toll to 14,053 with new hotspots outside the capital, Dhaka, particularly in border districts along India.

A total of 4,334 new infections were recorded, which took the caseload to 813,138, with the daily positivity rate of 22.50%, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).

The National Technical Advisory Committee on COVID-19 has already suggested imposing a 14-day complete shutdown as the Delta variant has already spread across Bangladesh — certainly in border districts.

Among the border districts; southwestern Jessore district witnessed as high as a 49.42% infection rate while the Dinajpur border district reported a 38% infection rate in recent hours as officials are fearing a third wave in the country.

The government, however, decided to impose a “harder” nationwide lockdown on Friday for one week starting Monday, amid a steady rise in infections and fatalities.

The closure of educational institutions will be extended as the government decided to impose a new lockdown. Schools have remained closed for 15 straight months since March 2020.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh will soon receive a gift of 2.5 million doses of the Moderna vaccine delivered through the multi-donor COVAX global initiative.

The US will donate 500 million Pfizer vaccines to 92 low- and lower-middle-income countries, including Bangladesh, according to the US Embassy in Dhaka.

Bangladesh is struggling to get vaccines amid surging infections as a supply from India was halted under an official agreement.