The Covid-19 situation in Bangladesh is gradually heading towards a grim level as the country reported 112 more deaths and 7,666 fresh infections in 24 hours till Tuesday morning.

With the new infections, the country’s positivity rate reached another peak of 23.97% from Monday’s 23.86% which was recorded 23.57% last on April 9 this year.

The percentage reached this shocking level after the test of 31,982 samples during the period, according to a handout issued by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).

New infections have been averaging 5,000 for the past few days – 75% of the peak.

Bangladesh is reporting over 100 deaths for the third consecutive day this month.

The country saw a record level of 8,436 Covid cases on Monday and the highest 119 deaths on Sunday since confirming its first cases on March 8 last year.

With the new numbers, the country’s death toll now stands at 14,388 while the caseload at 904,436.

However, the country’s fatality rate remained static at 1.59% while the recovery rate fell to 89.75% following a continuous drop.

Read: Massive vaccination to begin in July: PM

Of the deaths, 35 were reported in Khulna today, recording the highest among all divisions for the third consecutive day, while 22 in Dhaka, 21 in Rajshahi, 16 in Chattogram, 10 in Rangpur, four in Mymensingh, three in Barishal and one in Sylhet divisions.

The Dhaka division remained the highest fatal region recording 7,562 deaths followed by Chattogram with 2,727 deaths, Khulna with 1,235 deaths and Rajshahi with 1,011 deaths.

The four divisions have crossed the 1,000-mark of Covid fatalities as of now.

New restrictions

Amid the alarming surge in new cases, the government is going to enforce a seven-day toughest nationwide lockdown from July 1 engaging the Armed Forces, BGB and Battalion Police in a bid to check the coronavirus transmission in the country.

"There'll be no pass for movement this time….no one can go outside as they'll have to stay indoors," Cabinet Secretary Khandker Anwarul Islam said Monday. "We're moving on with a very tough stance to execute the lockdown from 6am on July 1 to 12 am on July 7."

Only those who are engaged in emergency services are allowed to move during the restrictions, he added.

In mid-April, restrictions on activities and movement were imposed across the country as cases and fatalities rose to their highest levels since the start of the pandemic. The positivity rate fell in May but started creeping up again this month, sparking harsher restrictions.

Read: Health minister hopes to get 11 crore vaccine doses by December

Vaccination drive update

The government has so far approved the emergency use of Oxford-AstraZeneca, Sinopharm (China), Sputnik-V (Russia), Pfizer-BioNTech (USA/Germany) and Crona Vac (China) vaccines.

Bangladesh is currently administering the 1st doses of Sinopharm vaccine and Pfizer BioNTech vaccine and also the second dose of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.

As of now, 13,500 people received the first dose of China’s Sinopharm vaccine, and 1329 have received the second dose of it.

Meanwhile, 240 people have received the first jab of Pfizer vaccine.

Of the Astrazeneca vaccine doses, 4,287,869 received the second shot and 5,820,015 the first one so far.