Published in: The Daily Star

Date: 11 Apr 2021

Exactly one month ago, the number of people dying of Covid-19 per day was around seven. The public thought the pandemic was at an ebb and they carried on with a semblance of a normal life.

A month later, yesterday, the number was 77. The deaths saw an eleven-fold increase just over the span of a month.

This is the record-highest number of deaths to ever occur since the beginning of the pandemic. Every hour yesterday, over three people died across the country. This number was two people per hour just five days ago.

Over the past week, from April 4 till yesterday, the death toll increased by 45 percent, while 488 people died last week.

With the latest death count, the total number of casualty due to Covid-19 reached  9,661, which was 1.42 percent of all detected cases in the country.

From March 10 to 16, there was a 271 percent increase in the death rate.

According to the Directorate General of Health Services, the number of new Covid-19 cases has risen by more than 26 percent.

In the previous week, a total of 38,471 people were detected as Covid-19 patients, while the number of detection was 48,660. Experts apprehended that the number of new cases, as well deaths, will continue rising for next few months unless physical distancing is ensured.

Incidentally, during the same week, the number of people recovering has also increased just as much as the death rate. Meanwhile, the number of recoveries has risen by more than 42 percent.

In the previous week, 38,471 Covid-19 patients recovered while this figure was 22,603 last week till yesterday.

Meantime, the number of total confirmed cases has reached 6,78,937. During the past 24 hours, the number of tests has decreased to 26,077 and of those, 20.49 percent were positive.

The previous day, the total number of tests was 31,654, and of those, 23.57 percent were positive.

After a second spike in infection, during November and December last year, the transmission remained at an all-time lowest during January and February this year with a below-two-percent positivity rate for more than a month during this time.

Since the second week of March, however, transmission continued rising with a record number of new cases and deaths.

In this context, the National Technical Advisory Committee on Covid-19 on Friday recommended a “countrywide two-week-long complete lockdown.”

Source:

https://www.thedailystar.net/frontpage/news/3-died-every-hour-yesterday-2075441