COVID-19 pandemic
Exercise austerity amid global price hike of goods: PM to all
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Tuesday urged the people to take austerity measures amid high inflation and price hike of goods across the world due to the Russia-Ukraine war and the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Yes, it is true that prices of goods have shot up to some extent. But it is still uncertain how much the prices would soar further. It is not only in Bangladesh, but also throughout the world. Rather we’ve been able to keep these under control at least (to some extent). We’ve been trying our best,” she said.
The premier was addressing a discussion through a virtual platform from her official residence Ganobhaban.
Bangladesh Awami League arranged the discussion at its central office in the city’s Bangabandhu Avenue marking the historic Six-Point Day. Sheikh Hasina, also the AL president, chaired it.
She said this war doesn’t seem to end so soon. “We all have to be economical. We’ll have to pay attention so that food will no way be wasted,” she said adding that the shipping cost to transport goods went up from US$ 800 to US$ 2500-US$ 3,000.
Pointing to the readymade garment workers’ movement to raise salary, the premier said they might lose their jobs if any unrest is created in the sector now in this tough time when the purchasing power of the people is declining in the export markets of Bangladeshi clothes.
"If any kind of unrest is created following someone’s words, it will harm not only the country but also the workers. Everyone will have to keep it in mind. I think the matter should be informed to the workers and their leaders,” she said.
Also read: Villagers to get specialized healthcare services online at home: PM
Global Covid cases top 532 million
The overall number of Covid cases has now crossed 532 million amid a rise in new infections in parts of the world.
According to the latest global data, the total case count mounted to 532,003,819 while the death toll from the virus reached 6,311,880 on Tuesday morning.
The US has recorded 85,730,597 cases so far and 1,031,286 people have died from the virus in the country, the data shows.
India's Covid-19 tally rose to 43,158,582, as 2,833 new cases were registered in 24 hours across the country, showed the federal health ministry's latest data.
Also read: Shanghai to ease COVID-19 control measures
Besides, 25 deaths from the pandemic registered across the country since Saturday morning took the total death toll to 524,611.
Situation in Bangladesh
Bangladesh registered one death from Covid-19 in 24 hours till Monday morning after one week, taking the total fatalities to 2,913, health authorities said.
Besides, the caseload mounted to 1,953,481 with 34 new cases recorded during the period, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
The deceased was a woman from Dhaka Division.
The country last saw two Covid-linked deaths with 31 cases on May 23. On Sunday, the country saw 40 new cases with zero deaths.
Of the two deaths recorded from May 23 to May 29, both received two shots of Covid vaccines but did not receive a third dose or a booster dose, the DGHS mentioned.
None of the patients who died during the week had comorbidities.
The daily test positivity rate slightly dropped to 0.63 percent from Monday's 0.79 percent as 5,362 samples were tested, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
The mortality rate remained unchanged at 1.49 percent.
Also read: Covid-19: Bangladesh reports 1 death after a week with 34 cases
The recovery rate remained unchanged at 97.39 percent as 169 patients recovered during this period.
In April, the country reported only five Covid-linked deaths and 1,114 new cases, while 14,100 patients recovered from the disease, according to the DGHS.
3-day In’l tourism fair begins in Dhaka June 2
A three-day international tourism fair is going to begin in the capital on June 2.
The Bangladesh Monitor will organise the tourism expo titled: Triplover Dhaka Mart-2022 (DTM-2022) at Pan Pacific Sonargaon hotel.
Following the devastating effect of COVID-19 pandemic, the country's travel and tourism-based publication house will organize the fair in a view to accelerate the recovery of the travel and tourism sector, said Kazi Wahidul Alam, Editor of The Bangladesh Monitor.
He said the State Minister for Civil Aviation and Tourism Md. Mahbub Ali will inaugurate the expo at 11 am while Prof. Shibli Rubayat-Ul-Islam, Chairman(Senior Secretary), Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) and Md. Jashim Uddin, President, FBCCI will be present on the occasion.
Also read: Monsoon Tourism: Best Places to Visit During the Rainy Season in Bangladesh
The organizers noted that a total of about 50 organisations, representing national tourism organisations, airlines, tour operators, hotels, resorts, travel agencies, online travel agencies, healthcare service providers from home and abroad are taking part in the DTM 2022.
The 3-day fair will remain open for visitors from 10 am to 8 pm everyday on payment of an entry fee of Tk. 40 per person. Attractive prizes will be offered in the raffle draw, which will include airline tickets to Maldives, Singapore, Kolkata, Cox’s Bazar and many others.
Attractive special offers and discounts will also be offered by the participating organizations during the 3-day fair including free hotel accommodation in Cox’s Bazar and other destinations by US-Bangla Airlines.
On the sideline of the fair a seminar on “Prospect of Bangladesh as a regional aviation hub” will be held on June 4 at 3.30 pm.
Leading online Travel Agency (OTA)Triplover is playing host as Title Sponsor of the fair while the biggest private sector airline of the country US- Bangla Airlines is the Co-sponsor. National carrier Biman Bangladesh Airlines, Bangladesh Tourism Board (BTB) and Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation (BPC) are the Partners of the DTM-2022.
Also read: FBCCI: Tourism must grow enabling Bangladesh to achieve SDGs
The press meet was addressed among others by Md. Zahid Hossain, Director (Additional Secretary) Sales and Marketing, Biman Bangladesh Airlines; Nishat Tasneem Shaikh, General Manager and Head of Operations of Triplover; Md. Kamrul Islam, General Manager, PR, US-Bangla Airlines; and Md. Ziaul Haque Howlader, Manager (Sales Development & PR), Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation.
Global Covid cases top 530 million
The overall number of Covid cases has now crossed 530 million amid a rise in new infections in parts of the world.
According to the latest global data, the total case count mounted to 530,313,294 while the death toll from the virus reached 6,307,781 on Friday morning.
The US has recorded 85,570,755 cases so far and 1,030,775 people have died from the virus in the country, the data shows.
India's Covid-19 tally rose to 43,146,033 on Thursday, with 1,213 new cases registered in 24 hours across the country, showed the federal health ministry's data.
Also read: Chinese mainland reports 80 new local confirmed COVID-19 cases
Besides, 18 deaths from the pandemic registered across the country since Monday morning took the total death toll to 524,525.
Situation in Bangladesh
Bangladesh registered 28 new Covid cases in 24 hours till Thursday morning, taking the country's total caseload to 1,953,356, health authorities said.
With no new Covid deaths reported during the period, the total fatalities from the pandemic remained unchanged at 29,130.
The daily test positivity rate remained unchanged at 0.65 per cent as 4,326 samples were tested, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
On Wednesday, the country saw 30 new cases with zero deaths.
The mortality rate remained unchanged at 1.49 per cent. The recovery rate rose to 97.36 per cent as 195 patients recovered during this period.
In April, the country reported only five 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.
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: WHO: COVID-19 cases mostly drop, except for the Americas
On January 28, Bangladesh logged its previous highest positivity rate of 33.37 per cent.
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.
Dominant coronavirus mutant contains ghost of pandemic past
The coronavirus mutant that is now dominant in the United States is a member of the omicron family but scientists say it spreads faster than its omicron predecessors, is adept at escaping immunity and might possibly cause more serious disease.
Why? Because it combines properties of both omicron and delta, the nation's dominant variant in the middle of last year.
A genetic trait that harkens back to the pandemic's past, known as a “delta mutation," appears to allow the virus "to escape pre-existing immunity from vaccination and prior infection, especially if you were infected in the omicron wave," said Dr. Wesley Long, a pathologist at Houston Methodist in Texas. That's because the original omicron strain that swept the world didn’t have the mutation.
The omicron “subvariant” gaining ground in the U.S. — known as BA.2.12.1 and responsible for 58% of U.S. COVID-19 cases last week — isn't the only one affected by the delta mutation. The genetic change is also present in the omicron relatives that together dominate in South Africa, known as BA.4 and BA.5. Those have exactly the same mutation as delta, while BA.2.12.1 has one that's nearly identical.
Also read: WHO: COVID-19 cases mostly drop, except for the Americas
This genetic change is bad news for people who caught the original omicron and thought that made them unlikely to get COVID-19 again soon. Although most people don't know for sure which variant caused their illness, the original omicron caused a giant wave of cases late last year and early this year.
Long said lab data suggests a prior infection with the original omicron is not very protective against reinfection with the new mutants, though the true risk of being reinfected no matter the variant is unique to every person and situation.
In a twist, however, those sickened by delta previously may have some extra armor to ward off the new mutants. A study released before it was reviewed by other scientists, by researchers at Ohio State University, found that COVID patients in intensive care with delta infections induced antibodies that were better at neutralizing the new mutants than patients who caught the original omicron.
“The omicron infection antibody does not appear to protect well against the subvariants compared to delta,” said Dr. Shan-Lu Liu, a study author who co-directs the viruses and emerging pathogens program at Ohio State.
But Liu said the level of protection a delta infection provides depends partly on how long ago someone was ill. That's because immunity wanes over time.
People who got sick with delta shouldn’t think of themselves as invulnerable to the new subvariants, especially if they’re unvaccinated, Long said. “I wouldn’t say anyone is safe."
Also read: Covid-19: Bangladesh reports 28 new cases, no death
One bright spot? Booster shots can provide strong protection against the new mutants, Liu said. In general, vaccines and prior infection can protect people from the worst outcomes of COVID-19. At this point, scientists say, it's too early to know if the new mutant gaining ground in the U.S. will cause a significant uptick in new cases, hospitalizations and deaths.
Scientists are still trying to figure out how virulent these new mutants are. Long said he hasn’t seen anything that answers that question for him, but Liu said emerging data points toward more serious illness. Liu said the subvariants have properties suggesting they spread more efficiently cell-to-cell.
The virus "just hides in the cell and spreads through cell-to-cell contact,” Liu said. “That's more scary because the virus does not come out for the antibody to work.”
Dr. Eric Topol, head of Scripps Research Translational Institute, said the new mutants certainly don’t appear less virulent than previous versions of omicron, and whether they are more virulent or not "will become clear in the months ahead.”
In the meantime, scientists expect the latest powerhouse mutants to spread quickly, since they are more transmissible than their predecessors.
Though home testing makes it tough to track all U.S. COVID cases, data from Johns Hopkins University shows that cases are averaging nearly 107,000 a day, up from about 87,000 two weeks ago. And new hospital admissions of patients with COVID-19 have been trending upwards since around mid-April, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“I’m hopeful that we don’t see a similar increase in hospitalizations that we’ve had in prior waves,” Long said. “But with COVID, any time you have lots of people being infected, it’s just a numbers game. Some of those people are going to be severe. Some of those people are going to need hospitalization. Some of them, unfortunately, are going to pass away.”
Global Covid cases top 527 million
The overall number of Covid cases has surpassed 527 million amid a rise in new infections in parts of the world.
According to Johns Hopkins University (JHU), the total case count mounted to 527,127,837 while the death toll from the virus reached 6,288,589 on Sunday morning.
The US has recorded 83,255,845 cases so far and 1,002,146 people have died from the virus in the country, the data shows.
India's Covid-19 tally rose to 43,136,340 on Friday, with 2,008 new cases registered in 24 hours across the South Asian country, showed the federal health ministry's data.
Also read: COVID-19: Urgent action sought to close vaccine equity gap
A further 25 deaths from the pandemic were reported in India, taking the death toll to 524,348.
Situation in Bangladesh
Bangladesh registered one Covid –linked death with 16 new Covid cases in 24 hours till Saturday morning
The country saw the death from Covid-19 after a month as the last death was logged on April 20.
The fresh numbers took the country's total caseload to 1,953,204, and the death toll to 29,128, health authorities said.
The daily test positivity rate slightly decreased to 0.41 per cent from Friday’s 0.79 per cent as 3,927 samples were tested, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
On Thursday,50 cases were reported with no death.
The mortality rate remained unchanged at 1.49 per cent. The recovery rate remained unchanged at 97.31 per cent as 172patients recovered during this period.
In April, the country reported only five 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.
Also read: Covid-19: Bangladesh logs 1 death after a month, 16 new infections
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.
On January 28, Bangladesh logged its previous highest positivity rate of 33.37 per cent.
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.
Global Covid cases near 520 million
The overall number of Covid cases is fast approaching 520 million amid a rise in new infections in parts of the world.
According to Johns Hopkins University (JHU), the total case count mounted to 519,991,591 while the death toll from the virus reached 6,259,954 Friday morning.
The US has recorded 82,325,687 cases so far and 999,125 people have died from the virus in the country, the data shows.
Also read: WHO: COVID-19 falling everywhere, except Americas and Africa
India's Covid-19 tally rose to 43,116,600 Friday, with 3,187 new cases registered in 24 hours across the country, showed the federal health ministry's latest data. The total death toll stands at 524,181.
Situation in Bangladesh
Bangladesh reported 51 Covid cases in 24 hours till Thursday morning which took the total caseload to 1,952,939.
With no new Covid deaths reported during the period for the 22nd consecutive day, the total fatalities from the pandemic remained unchanged at 29,127.
The daily test positivity rate slightly dropped to 0.51 per cent from Wednesday's 0.53 per cent as 5,697 samples were tested, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
On Wednesday, the number of cases was lower as 33 new cases were reported.
The mortality rate remained unchanged at 1.49 per cent. The recovery rate rose to 97.22 per cent as 291 patients recovered during this period.
Also read: Covid-19: Bangladesh reports 51 cases, no death
In April, the country reported only five Covid-linked deaths and 1,114 new cases, while 14,100 patients recovered from the disease, according to the DGHS.
North Korea confirms 1st COVID outbreak, Kim orders lockdown
North Korea imposed a nationwide lockdown Thursday to control its first acknowledged COVID-19 outbreak after holding for more than two years to a widely doubted claim of a perfect record keeping out the virus that has spread to nearly every place in the world.
The outbreak forced leader Kim Jong Un to wear a mask in public, likely for the first time since the start of the pandemic, but the scale of transmissions inside North Korea wasn't immediately known.
A failure to slow infections could have serious consequences because the country has a poor health care system and its 26 million people are believed to be mostly unvaccinated. Some experts say North Korea, by its rare admission of an outbreak, may be seeking outside aid.
Also read: WHO: COVID-19 falling everywhere, except Americas and Africa
However, hours after North Korea confirmed the outbreak, South Korea’s military said it detected the North had fired three suspected ballistic missiles toward the sea. It was its 16th round of missile launches this year — brinkmanship aimed at forcing the United States to accept North Korea as a nuclear power and negotiate sanctions relief and other concessions from a position of strength.
The official Korean Central News Agency said tests of virus samples collected Sunday from an unspecified number of people with fevers in the capital, Pyongyang, confirmed they were infected with the omicron variant.
In response, Kim called at a ruling party Politburo meeting for a thorough lockdown of cities and counties and said workplaces should be isolated by units to block the virus from spreading. He urged health workers to step up disinfection efforts at workplaces and homes and mobilize reserve medical supplies.
Kim said it was crucial to control transmissions and eliminate the infection source as fast as possible, while also easing inconveniences to the public caused by the virus controls. He insisted the country will overcome the outbreak because its government and people are “united as one.”
Despite the elevated virus response, Kim ordered officials to push ahead with scheduled construction, agricultural development and other state projects while bolstering the country’s defense posture to avoid any security vacuum.
North Korea’s state TV showed Kim and other senior officials wearing masks as they entered a meeting room, although Kim removed his mask to speak into a set of microphones. Still photos distributed by KNCA showed Kim unmasked and sitting at the head of a table where all other officials remained masked.
South Korea’s Unification Ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs, couldn't immediately confirm whether it was the first time state media showed Kim wearing a mask since the start of the pandemic. Kim has previously spoken to huge crowds without a mask as he praised the country's earlier pandemic response, and his decision to be seen with a mask could be aimed at raising public vigilance.
North Korea, which has maintained strict anti-virus controls at its borders for more than two years, didn’t provide further details about its new lockdown. But an Associated Press photographer on the South Korean side of the border saw dozens of people working in fields or walking on footpaths at a North Korean border town — an indication the lockdown doesn't require people to stay home, or it exempts farm work.
Also read: North Korea raises alarm after confirming 1st COVID-19 case
The measures described in state media and Kim’s declaration that economic goals should still be met could indicate that North Korea is focusing more on restricting travel and supplies between regions, analyst Cheong Seong-Chang at South Korea’s Sejong Institute said.
North Korea’s government has shunned vaccines offered by the U.N.-backed COVAX distribution program, possibly because they have international monitoring requirements.
Seoul's Unification Ministry said South Korea is willing to provide medical assistance and other help to North Korea based on humanitarian considerations. Relations between the Koreas have deteriorated since 2019 amid a stalemate in nuclear negotiations and the North's increasingly provocative weapons tests.
In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said Beijing is offering North Korea help in dealing with the outbreak. North Korea has reportedly rejected previous Chinese offers of domestically developed vaccines.
Kim Sin-gon, a professor at Seoul’s Korea University College of Medicine, said North Korea is likely signaling its willingness to receive outside vaccines, but wants many more doses than offered by COVAX to inoculate its entire population multiple times. He said North Korea would also want COVID-19 medicines and medical equipment shipments that are banned by U.N. sanctions.
Omicron spreads much more easily than earlier variants of the coronavirus, and its fatality and hospitalization rates are high among unvaccinated older people or those with existing health problems. That means the outbreak could cause “a serious situation” because North Korea lacks medical equipment and medicine to treat virus patients and many of its people are not well-nourished, Kim Sin-gon said.
Ahn Kyung-su, head of DPRKHEALTH.ORG, a website focusing on health issues in North Korea, said North Korea’s admission of the outbreak is likely designed to press its people harder to guard against the virus as China, which shares a long, porous border with the North, has placed many of its cities under lockdown over virus concerns.
North Korea will also likely stress lockdowns, although the experience of China’s “zero-COVID” policy suggests that approach doesn’t work against the fast-moving omicron variant, said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor of international studies at Seoul’s Ewha Womans University.
“For Pyongyang to publicly admit omicron cases, the public health situation must be serious,” Easley said.
North Korea’s previous coronavirus-free claim had been disputed by many foreign experts. But South Korean officials have said North Korea had likely avoided a huge outbreak, in part because it instituted strict virus controls almost from the start of the pandemic.
Early in 2020 — before the coronavirus spread around the world — North Korea took severe steps to keep out the virus and described them as a matter of “national existence." It all but halted cross-border traffic and trade for two years, and is believed to have ordered troops to shoot on sight any trespassers who crossed its borders.
The extreme border closures further shocked an economy already damaged by decades of mismanagement and U.S.-led sanctions over its nuclear weapons and missile program, pushing Kim to perhaps the toughest moment of his rule since he took power in 2011.
North Korea had been one of the last places in the world without an acknowledged COVID-19 case after the virus first detected in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019 spread to every continent including Antarctica. Turkmenistan, a similarly secretive and authoritarian nation in Central Asia, has reported no cases to the World Health Organization, though its claim also is widely doubted by outside experts.
In recent months, some Pacific island nations that kept the virus out by their geographic isolation have recorded outbreaks. Only tiny Tuvalu, with a population around 12,000, has escaped the virus so far, while a few other nations – Nauru, Micronesia and Marshall Islands – have stopped cases at their borders and avoided community outbreaks.
North Korea's outbreak comes as China — its close ally and trading partner — battles its biggest outbreak of the pandemic.
In January, North Korea tentatively reopened railroad freight traffic between its border town of Sinuiju and China’s Dandong for the first time in two years, but China halted the trade last month due to an outbreak in Liaoning province, which borders North Korea.
67 individuals, institutions get BB remittance award
Sixty-seven individuals and institutions have been honoured with Bangladesh Bank Remittance Award-2020 under five categories.
The awardees included professionals, traders, remittance receiving banks, exchange houses and remittance sending expatriates.
Though the BB has been giving the award for the last 7 years but organizing the 7th remittance award function was delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Also read: Bangabandhu global cyber security awareness award to be introduced: Palak
Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal handed over the awards as the chief guest at a function held at the Krishibid Institution Bangladesh (KIB) auditorium in the capital.
BB Governor Fazle Kabir, Secretary to the Ministry of Expatriate Welfare and Overseas Employment Dr Ahmed Munirus Salehin and Secretary to Financial Institutions Division Sheikh Mohammad Saleem Ullah were present at the function as special guests.
Also read: Abul Kalam Azad to be conferred with Japan's second-highest civilian award
Global Covid cases near 518 million
The overall number of Covid cases is now approaching 518 million amid a rise in new infections in parts of the world.
According to Johns Hopkins University (JHU), the total case count mounted to 517,756,924 while the death toll from the virus reached 6,252,895 Tuesday morning.
The US has recorded 81,966,629 cases so far and 997,735 people have died from the virus in the country, the data shows.
Also read: Covid-19: Bangladesh sees zero death for 19th straight day
India's Covid-19 tally rose to 43,107,322 Sunday, with 1,921 new cases registered in 24 hours across the country, showed the federal health ministry's latest data.
Besides, as many as 29 fatalities were reported across the country due to the pandemic since Sunday morning, taking the total death toll to 524,093.
Situation in Bangladesh
No Covid-related deaths were reported in Bangladesh in 24 hours till Monday morning.
With this, the country witnessed zero Covid death for the 19th consecutive day and the total fatalities from the pandemic remained unchanged at 29,127.
Thirty new Covid cases were recorded during the period, which took the total caseload to 1,952,829.
The daily test positivity rate slightly dropped to 0.40 percent from Sunday's 0.41 percent as 7,413 samples were tested, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
On Sunday, the number of cases was lower as 23 new cases were reported.
The mortality rate remained unchanged at 1.49 percent. The recovery rate rose to 97.18 percent as 272 patients recovered during this period.
Also read: Global Covid cases top 517 million
In April, the country reported only five 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.