pandemic
Kamal thanks ADB for budget aid during pandemic
Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal on Monday thanked Asian Development Bank (ADB) for providing Bangladesh USD $ 1 billion as budget aid to face the adverse economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The minister was addressing a meeting at a city hotel with visiting ADB vice president (operation) Shixin Chen.
Kamal praised the ADB’s role as the ’main development partner’ of Bangladesh. Since independence, Manila-based and mainly Japan-funded ADB provided $27 billion loan aid to the country.
Also read: PM urges ADB to finance Bangladesh's Delta Plan 2100
The finance minister hoped for continued cooperation of ADB for socio-economic development and poverty alleviation in Bangladesh.
In response, ADB’s vice president Chen has assured Kamal to continue ADB’s aid for recovery of the economy from the loss of pandemic and for socio economic improvement.
Bangladesh Bank’s Governor Fazle Kabir, finance secretary Abdur Rouf Talukther, Economic Relation Division Secretary Fatema Yasmin, ADB’s deputy director Manmohan Parkash, Country Director Mr. Edimon Ginting, among others, present in the meeting.
Also read: ADB approves ceiling for policy-based lending
Covid: Bangladesh reports 10 new cases , no death
Bangladesh reported 10 Covid cases in the 24 hours until Wednesday morning.
With no new Covid death reported durung this period the country's total fatalities from the pandemic remained unchanged at 29,127.
The new cases took its caseload to 1,952,743.
Also read:Bangladesh ranks top among the countries to receive free Covid vaccine from WHO: Health minister
The daily test positivity rate rose to 0.60 per cent from Tuesday's 0.42 per cent as 1,661 samples were tested, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
The mortality rate remained unchanged at 1.49 percent. The recovery rate rose to 97.12 percent as 252 patients recovered during this period.
In April, the country reported only 5 Covid-linked deaths and 1,114 new cases, while 14,100 patients recovered from the disease, according to the DGHS.
Among the five deaths during the period, two were unvaccinated patients while three were vaccinated with two doses of the Covid vaccine.
The country reported its first zero Covid death in a single day on November 20 last year, along with 178 cases, since the pandemic broke out here in March 2020.
Also read: Beijing closes 10% of subway stations to stem COVID spread
On January 28, Bangladesh logged its previous highest positivity rate of 33.37 percent.
The country registered its highest daily caseload of 16,230 on July 28 last year and daily fatalities of 264 on August 10 in the same year.
Help all reach vaccination targets, Hasina urges COVAX summit
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Friday called upon the development partners to increase their contributions and vaccines to COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC) for helping all countries reach vaccination targets as some still remain far behind.
“I call upon all stakeholders to work together to help reach vaccination targets in all countries. I also urge the development partners to increase their contributions and vaccines to COVAX AMC,” she said.
She made the plea in a video statement at COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC) Summit organised by Germany and GAVI.
Also read: 50-yrs of Bangladesh Scouts: PM releases commemorative stamp
Hasina reiterated that Covid vaccines should be considered a global public good.
“Unfortunately, there are some countries who still remain far from achieving their vaccination targets. These countries deserve special attention and support from the international community,” she said.
She also ensured the world that Bangladesh is ready to do its part to ensure vaccine equity and committed to working always with GAVI and Covax AMC.
The prime minister said that COVID-19 pandemic has reinforced the need for international cooperation to respond effectively to public health emergencies.
In this connection, she said that the COVAX Facility has offered a global platform for the purpose.
“We must support this platform with necessary resources and expertise to deal with future pandemics,” she said.
The PM said that the impact of the pandemic could have been devastating in Bangladesh if the country did not have a strong healthcare system.
“Throughout the pandemic, we were able to keep the infection at tolerable level and now we see a drastic fall in the infection,” she said.
So far, the prime minister said that Bangladesh has vaccinated more than 90 percent of the target population at free of cost.
Also read: PM calls for enhancing digital security
“Our longstanding partnership with GAVI has been critical in achieving this success,” she added.
She also sought continued support from the COVAX AMC mechanism.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Indonesian President Joko Widodo, President of Senegal Macky Sall and Chair of Gavi Board Prof. José Manuel Barroso delivered statements at the opening session, while Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, US Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, Tunisia’s Prime Minister Najla Bouden and UN Secretary General António Guterres also delivered video messages.
Global Covid cases top 491 million
The overall number of Covid cases has now surpassed 491 million amid a rise in new infections in parts of the world.
According to Johns Hopkins University (JHU), the total case count mounted to 491,352,180 while the death toll from the virus reached 6,152,703 Monday morning.
Read:Bangladesh reports no death from Covid-19, new cases 56
The US has recorded 80,155,397 cases so far and 982,565 people have died from the virus in the country, the university data shows.
The prevalence of COVID-19 in the U.K. has reached record levels, with about 1 in 13 people estimated to be infected with the virus in the past week, according to the latest figures from Britain’s official statistics agency, reports AP.
Some 4.9 million people were estimated to have the coronavirus in the week ending March 26, up from 4.3 million recorded in the previous week, the Office for National Statistics said Friday. The latest surge is driven by the more transmissible omicron variant BA.2, which is the dominant variant across the U.K.
Hospitalizations and death rates are again rising, although the number of people dying with COVID-19 is still relatively low compared with earlier this year. Nonetheless, the latest estimates suggest that the steep climb in new infections since late February, when British Prime Minister Boris Johnson scrapped all remaining coronavirus restrictions in England, has continued well into March.
India's COVID-19 tally rose to 43,028,131 on Sunday, as 1,096 new cases were registered during the past 24 hours across the country, showed the federal health ministry's latest data.
Besides, as many as 81 deaths due to the pandemic were reported since Saturday morning, taking the total death toll to 521,345.
Situation in Bangladesh
Bangladesh logged 56 fresh Covid cases in 24 hours till Sunday morning, taking the total caseload to 19,51,770.
As per the latest government data, the country’s total fatalities remained unchanged at 29,122 as no death was reported during the period.
Read:COVID-19 cases rise in Shanghai with millions under lockdown
The daily positivity rate slightly dropped to 0.79 per cent from Saturday’s 0.88 per cent after testing 7,099 samples during the period, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
Besides, the mortality rate remained unchanged at 1.49 per cent.
The recovery rate rose to 96.50 per cent with the recovery of 596 more patients during the 24-hour period.
New Zealand to remove pandemic mandates as omicron wanes
New Zealand will remove many of its COVID-19 pandemic mandates over the next two weeks as an outbreak of the omicron variant begins to wane.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Wednesday that people will no longer need to be vaccinated to visit places like retail stores, restaurants and bars from April 4. Gone, too, will be a requirement to scan QR barcodes at those venues.
Read:Fishing boat sinks in New Zealand storm, 4 dead, 1 missing
A vaccine mandate will be scrapped for some workers — including teachers, police officers and waiters — though it will continue for health care and aged-care workers, border workers and corrections officers.
Also gone from Friday is a limit on outdoor crowds of 100. That will allow some concerts and big sporting events like marathons to resume. An indoor limit of 100 people will be raised to 200 people, and could later be removed altogether.
Remaining in place is a requirement that people wear masks in many enclosed spaces, including in stores, on public transport and, for children aged 8 and over, in school classrooms.
Ardern said the government's actions over the past two years to limit the spread of the coronavirus had saved thousands of lives and helped the economy.
“But while we’ve been successful, it’s also been bloody hard," Ardern said.
“Everyone has had to give up something to make this work, and some more than others,” she said.
The changes mean that many restrictions will be removed before tourists start arriving back in New Zealand.
Earlier this month, the government announced that Australian tourists would be welcomed back from April 12 and tourists from many other countries, including the U.S., Canada, and Britain, from May 1.
International tourism used to account for about 20% of New Zealand’s foreign income and more than 5% of GDP but evaporated after the South Pacific nation imposed some of the world's strictest border controls after the pandemic began.
Read: New Zealand to end quarantine stays and reopen its borders
New Zealand continues to see some of its highest rates of coronavirus infections and hospitalizations since the pandemic began, with an average 17,000 new infections being reported each day.
But Ardern said modeling shows that the biggest city of Auckland is already significantly past the peak of its omicron outbreak and the rest of the country will soon follow.
Health experts warned that some countries which had dropped restrictions as omicron faded were now experiencing another surge of cases.
Global Covid cases top 470 million
The overall number of Covid cases has surged past 470 million as the pandemic enters into its third year.
According to Johns Hopkins University (JHU), the total case count mounted to 470,646,813 while the death toll from the virus reached 6,077,482 Monday morning.
The US has recorded 79,734,788 cases so far and 971,162 people have died from the virus in the country, the university data shows.
Read: Bangladesh logs 3 Covid-linked deaths with 82 cases with positivity rate below 1%
In China, the government reported 2,027 new cases in the 24 hours through midnight Sunday, up from the previous day’s 1,737, reports AP.
China's national health authorities reported two COVID-19 deaths on Saturday, the first recorded rise in the death toll since January last year, bringing the country's coronavirus death toll to 4,638.
China had recorded 4,636 deaths since the pandemic began in the central city of Wuhan in late 2019. It revised its death toll once in April 2020, adding in new deaths that were not initially counted as the pandemic overwhelmed the city's hospitals and other systems.
India's COVID-19 tally rose to 43,007,841 on Sunday, as 1,761 new cases were registered during the past 24 hours across the country, showed the federal health ministry's latest data.
Besides, as many as 127 deaths due to the pandemic since Saturday morning took the total death toll to 516,479.
Meanwhile, Brazil reported 304 deaths and 44,154 new cases of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, bringing the national death toll to 657,102 and the total caseload to 29,617,266, the country's Ministry of Health reported Saturday.
Brazil has been struggling with the Omicron variant of the virus since the end of December, with a record number of infections in January, but since February, indicators such as deaths, hospitalizations and positive cases have been in sharp decline, according to official data.
Situation in Bangladesh
Bangladesh reported three Covid-linked deaths with 82 fresh cases in 24 hours till Sunday morning after seeing a deathless day.
The daily positivity rate rose a bit to 0.90 from Saturday’s 0.83 per cent after testing 9.082 samples during the period, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
Read:Moderna seeks FDA authorization for 4th dose of COVID shot
With the latest numbers country’s total fatalities rose to 29,117 while the caseload mounted to 19,50,609.
Meanwhile, the mortality rate remained unchanged at 1.49 per cent.
The recovery rate rose to 95.89 per cent with the recovery of 837 more patients during the 24-hour period.
Global Covid cases top 463 million
The overall number of Covid cases has surged past 463 million as the pandemic enters into its third year.
According to Johns Hopkins University (JHU), the total case count mounted to 463,663,236 while the death toll from the virus reached 6,057,996 Thursday morning.
The US has recorded 79,631,708 cases so far and 968,329 people have died from the virus in the country, the university data shows.
Read: Pfizer asks US to allow 4th COVID vaccine dose for seniors
India's Covid-19 tally rose to 42,998,938 on Wednesday, as 2,876 new cases were registered in 24 hours across the country, showed the federal health ministry data.
Besides, as many as 98 deaths due to the pandemic since Tuesday morning took the total death toll to 516,072.
Meanwhile, Brazil, which has been experiencing a new wave of cases since January last year, registered 29,488,777 cases as of Wednesday, while its Covid death toll rose to 656,231.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the number of new coronavirus deaths reported worldwide fell by 17% in the last week while Covid-19 infections rose, reversing a decline in cases that first began in January.
In the UN health agency’s weekly report on the pandemic issued late Tuesday, WHO said there were more than 11 million new Covid-19 infections last week -- about an 8% rise -- and 43,000 new deaths. The number of Covid deaths globally has been dropping for the past three weeks.
The biggest increase in cases were seen in the Western Pacific and Africa, where infections rose by 29% and 12%, respectively. Elsewhere, cases dropped by more than 20% in the Middle East, Southeast Asia and the Americas. In Europe, cases inched up by about 2%.
Situation in Bangladesh
No Covid-related death was reported in Bangladesh in 24 hours till Wednesday morning like the previous day.
On Tuesday, the country logged zero Covid-related death after more than three months.
Besides, 182 more infections were reported during the 24-hour period.
The country reported its first zero Covid-related death in a single day on November 20 last year, along with 178 infections, since the pandemic broke out in Bangladesh in March 2020.
The daily positivity rate declined to 1.38 per cent from Tuesday’s 1.54 per cent after 13,062 samples were tested during the period, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
With the latest report, the country’s total fatalities stated static at 29,112 while the caseload rose to 19,50,124.
Read:Bangladesh logs zero death from Covid after 3 months
Meanwhile, the mortality rate remained unchanged at 1.49 per cent.
The recovery rate rose to 95.67 per cent with the recovery of 1,192 more patients during the 24-hour period.
On January 28, Bangladesh logged its previous highest daily positivity rate at 33.37 per cent reporting 15,440 cases and 20 deaths.
Besides, the country registered the highest daily caseload of 16,230 on July 28 last year, while the highest number of daily fatalities was 264 on August 10 last year.
Pandemic impact: Banks’ bad loans rise by 8 per cent to Tk 1.3 trillion
The Covid-19 pandemic pushed up default bank loans to 8 per cent to Tk1.3 trillion ( 1 trillion is equal to Tk 1 lakh crore) in last December.
Bangladesh Bank (BB) failed to curb the loans default despite providing a number of facilities including moratorium (a loan moratorium is a legally authorized period that delays the payment of money due on account of specific loan instalments) of instalment payments.
According to BB’s latest data, the default loans amount stood in December 2021 at over Tk1.3 trillion (8 per cent of total loans), that was Tk 88734 crore (7.66 per cent) in December 2020.
Read: BB asks NBFIs comply with Banker's Book Evidence Act-2021 to avoid imprisonment
According to the latest data from the central bank, at the end of December last year, the total debt of the banking sector stood at Tk13.18 trillion.
At the end of September, the total debt balance was Tk12. 45 trillion. Of this, the defaulted loans shot to Tk1.15 trillion, which was 8.12 per cent of the total debt.
Till June last year, the total amount of loans disbursed in the banking sector was Tk12.13 trillion. The defaulted loans stood at Tk 99205 crore. In the three months from March to June, defaulted loans increased by Tk 3,899 crore, the BB sources said.
Read: Economy resilient, no liquidity shortages in banks: BB governor
Of the new defaulted loans, more than Tk 11,000 crore has been raised in private banks and more than Tk 2,000 crore in state owned banks. Due to this increase, the private banks overtook the unrealised loans in the government banks.
However, the default rate in the state banks is more than three times that of private banks. About 20 per cent of the loans disbursed in the state-owned banks have been defaulted.
Even if it increases a lot in one year, the default rate among the disbursed loans is a little more than 5 per cent.
Read Remittance to exceed $25 billion by end of current fiscal : Finance Minister
Although the situation of public, private and foreign banks has deteriorated in the last one year, the situation of three specialized banks has improved. These banks have been able to reduce defaulted loans.
Finance minister thanks ADB for prompt assistance in tackling pandemic
Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal has thanked Asian Development Bank (ADB) for its prompt assistance in overcoming the adverse effects of COVID-19 pandemic.
Illustrating the ADB’s assistance to Bangladesh he said ADB has provide USD $ 1.0 billion budget support for potential economic impact of Coronavirus outbreak, $100 million for in health assistance for COVID-19 Response Emergency Assistance project, $940 million loan assistance for purchase of COVID-19 vaccine and $9.34 million grant assistance during the pandemic.
READ: Govt, ADB ink $13.5 mln loan deal to improve irrigation management
Kamal came up with remarks while speaking in an exchange meeting with Executive Director of ADB Sameer Kumar Khare at his secretariat office on Monday.
Abdur Rauf Talukder, Senior Secretary, Finance Division, Fatima Yasmin, Secretary, Economic Relations Division, Edimon Ginting, Country Director, Asian Development Bank, Bangladesh Office, among others, were present.
ADB is one of the leading development partners in Bangladesh. ADB has provided $19.7 billion in loan assistance to Bangladesh since 1982.
Kamal particularly urged the ADB to provide more development assistance to address the challenges following the transition from LDCs to developing countries.
READ: ADB provides $150 mln loan to support small-scale employment creation project
He stressed the need for continuing such cooperation between Bangladesh and ADB in the future to achieve the overall development goals.
In response Sameer Kumar said ADB has been cooperating from the very beginning to restore the social and economic security of Bangladesh to overcome the pandemic and will continue to be on the side of Bangladesh in the future as well.
106 policemen died of Covid-19 serving the country: IGP
As many as 106 policemen have died of Covid-19 in the last two years of the pandemic, said Inspector General of Police (IGP) Benazir Ahmed on Sunday.
“Besides, more than 7,000 policemen have been infected with Covid-19. They have recovered and re-engaged in the service of the country and the welfare of the people,” said the IGP after inaugurating the Police Memorial at Police Staff College in Mirpur of the capital.
The IGP said the police force of this country fired the first bullet in favor of the war of liberation and independence in response to Bangabandhu's call in 1971.
“Since then, the members of Bangladesh Police Force formed through the liberation war have been dedicating themselves every year to serve the people, for security, for the discipline and stability of this country,” he added.
Also read: Police are better trained now to maintain law and order: IGP
The IGP also said the Defense Forces fight to protect the independence and sovereignty of the country in a state of war. “And in peacetime, the police are always engaged in war. This war is against those who are engaged in the destruction of society and the state.”
"Where there is war, there is danger of death," he said. “We lose our colleagues every year. They were martyred to maintain peace and order in the country and to provide security to the people.”
"When one of our policemen sacrifices his/her life, we do not lose a single person. We lost one of our colleagues, comrades and friends,” the IGP said.
At the same time, the family loses their loved ones. He added.
Referring to the construction of the Police Memorial, the IGP said Police Memorial Day is being celebrated since 2017. “We have been trying to establish such a memorial since 2010.”
Also read: Bangladesh police will be made worth of a developed country by 2041: IGP
“Today, after 12 years, this initiative has been successful.”
Additional IGs, heads of various units of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, senior police officers, engineers and architects concerned of the Public Works and Architecture Department and officials of contractors were present at the event.