Bangladesh saw its daily deaths from coronavirus shatter the local record yet again with 102 fatalities between Saturday and Sunday morning.

It was the third consecutive day that the country registered more than 100 deaths in a 24-hour period.

The latest fatalities pushed up the death tally to 10,385 with a mortality rate of 1.44 percent, according to a handout from the Directorate General of Health Services.

Data released by the government show a downward trend in tests and new cases as the number of deaths and recoveries rise steadily.

With fewer tests, the number of new cases remained low at 3,698 but the infection rate was at 19.06 percent, down from 21.46 percent on Saturday.

On Sunday, 19,404 samples were tested. The number was 34,630 on April 7 when the country recorded its highest single-day cases of 7,626.

Bangladesh reported its first coronavirus cases on March 8, 2020, and the first death on March 18 that year.

The country has so far confirmed 718,950 cases. But 614,936 people – 85.53 percent of all patients – have recovered so far.

Deadliest weeks

April has been the most devastating month so far, with 1,339 deaths and 104,182 new cases.

More people tested positive for Covid-19 in the last 20 days than in the last 10 months.

The virus claimed 568 lives in January this year, 281 in February and 638 in March.

Also read: South Asia fast becoming new global epicentre of Covid-19: IFRC

Last year’s months-long ‘general holiday’ helped curb the virus’ transmission and keep the fatalities low but people have since shown reluctance to adhere to health rules. The lackadaisical attitude has been blamed for the worsening coronavirus situation.

The country is passing through a ‘strict’ lockdown at the moment but the people are still indifferent towards health guidelines and safety rules. People are going out of their homes, roaming the streets and gathering in tea stalls for chattering.

Cause of concern

At least 160,000 people tested positive in the past one and a half months. In 45 days before that, just 15,000 cases were reported.

The number of patients increased ten times and the death toll surged too.

Experts have raised concerns about the spread of more contagious and deadlier variants of the virus.

Research by the icddr,b has found that the South African variant accounted for 81 percent of the positive cases in Dhaka since the third week of March this year.

That’s not good news for Bangladesh because the country has managed to procure only the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine which offers as little as 10 percent protection against the South African variant, researchers suggested.

Also read: Worldwide COVID-19 death toll tops a staggering 3 million

Vaccine worries

Bangladesh inked an agreement with the Serum Institute of India Pvt Ltd for 30 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

A countrywide inoculation drive was launched on Feb 7. Until Sunday morning, 7,116,946 have registered for the vaccine.

So far, 57,14,090 people have received the first dose and 13,66,609 have got their second jab, according to official figures.

There are growing calls for speeding up the vaccination programme as hospitals are swamped with patients.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh's vaccine supplier India has shifted from being a mass vaccine exporter to a major importer after the country saw a record number of daily cases.

Although Bangladesh is yet to receive its March consignment of 5 million doses, Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen said they will arrive as promised by India.

“We’re communicating with sources,” he noted.

Hospitals nearing limits

Hospitals are now struggling to accommodate the increasing number of patients and are running low on beds and oxygen.

There are 11,201 general beds for Covid-19 patients and 5,721 of them are currently occupied.

Also read: India records over 260,000 daily COVID-19 cases, tally at 14,788,109

Hospitals dedicated to treating coronavirus patients in Dhaka, Narayanganj and Gazipur had 288 ICU beds or beds with equivalent facilities available.

Overall, there are 924 ICU beds across the country and only 189 are available, the DGHS said.

The government is increasing the number of dedicated hospitals and beds.

A 1,000-bed Covid-19 hospital at Dhaka North City Corporation's Mohakhali market was opened on Sunday.

The dedicated hospital has 212-bed ICU, 250-bed high dependency unit, an emergency unit with 50 beds, and 438 isolated high care rooms for patients.