Covid surge
Covid-19: Bangladesh reports 3,447 fresh cases with 7 more deaths
Bangladesh logged seven more Covid-linked deaths with 3,447 more infections in 24 hours till Saturday morning.
With the fresh cases reported after testing 24,028 samples, the daily positivity rate declined slightly to 14.35 per cent from Friday’s 14.66 per cent during the period, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
The fresh numbers took the country’s total fatalities to 28,136 while the caseload mounted to 1,612,489 on Saturday.
Among the new deceased, four were men and three women.
Four deaths were reported in Dhaka division while two in Sylhet and another in Barishal division.
The mortality rate dropped a bit to 1.74 per cent from yesterday’s 1.75 per cent .
Read: Lockdown will return if Covid restrictions violated: Health Minister
The recovery rate declined again to 96.29 per cent with the recovery of 274 more patients during the period.
Covid surge: BNP rescheduled 32 rallies
BNP has decided to reschedule its 32 rallies in different districts due to a sharp rise in Covid infection rate.
“We earlier said the restriction (on public rallies in open spaces) imposed by the government is illogical and ineffective. Even then, we’ve decided to reschedule our rallies, taking into account the public interest,” said BNP standing committee member Nazrul Islam Khan.
Speaking at a press conference at BNP chairperson’s Gulshan office, he urged the central leaders of BNP and its associate bodies in all metropolitan cities and districts to continue their preparations for the holding the rallies on the rescheduled dates.
Read: AL conspiring to rig votes again, alleges BNP
Replying to a question, the BNP leader said they did not postpone their rallies as they have only rescheduled those.
The fresh dates for the rallies in 32 districts will be announced later.
Amid the spike in Covid cases due to the transmission of the Omicron variant, the government on imposed various restrictions, including public gatherings, social programmes, political and religious events that came into effect on Thursday.
Nazrul said the government has imposed the restriction on public rallies and gatherings in open spaces when local body elections are going on and the markets, shops and educational institutions remain opened.
He said experts are saying the risk of the transmission of Omicron is less in open spaces than in closed ones. “But the government has been allowing public gatherings in closed spaces instead of in open ones. “The main purpose of the restrictions is to obstruct our programmers of the ongoing movement as the government has failed to thwart those by imposing section 144.”
He said the efforts of snatching people’s democratic rights by an ‘undemocratic’ regime are very usual.
BNP standing committee member Gayeshwar Chandra Roy said the government’s 11-point restriction to contain Covid transmission is contradictory to ongoing elections to Narayanganj City Corporation and other local bodies.
"The government has so far not requested the Election Commission to suspend the local body polls considering the overall situation. “So, there’s no doubt that the ban on public rallies is politically motivated."
On 5 January, the party announced to hold rallies in its 40 more organisational districts from January 8 in the second phase to force the government to allow its chairperson Khaleda Zia to go abroad for advanced medical treatment.
As per the schedule, the party was supposed to hold rallies in six days – January 8, 12, 15, 17, 22 and 24 – to mount pressure on the government to allow Khaleda Zia to go abroad for treatment.
The party formally inaugurated the second-phase programmes through a rally in Brahmanbaria on 8 January.
Read: Ban on public rallies in open space unacceptable: BNP
On January 12, BNP arranged 7 more rallies in its 12 organisational districts.
In the first phase, the party held rallies in 23 districts from 22 to 30 December to press for the same demand.
Khaleda, a 76-year-old former prime minister, has been receiving treatment at Evercare Hospital for various health complications since 13 November.
Her medical board members said Khaleda immediately needs to go abroad for better treatment as she was diagnosed with liver cirrhosis.
Covid surge in Bangladesh: Daily positivity rate jumps to 6.78%
The Covid-19 situation keeps worsening in Bangladesh with health authorities logging three more deaths and 1,491 new infections in 24 hours till Sunday morning.
With the detection of fresh cases after testing 21,980 samples, the daily-case positivity rate jumped to 6.78 percent from Saturday’s 5.79 per cent during the period, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
The country last recorded 1,562 cases on September 21, last year with a death toll of 26.
Also read: Covid-19: Bangladesh logs 1,116 more cases, 1 death
Covid surge in Bangladesh: 5,000 get infected in just one week
Bangladesh is currently seeing a surge of Covid-19 cases as health authorities logged 4,920 infections in the last seven days till Thursday morning.
The country reported seven more deaths and 1,140 fresh cases in 24 hours till Thursday morning, said the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
Bangladesh’s daily cases last crossed 1,100 on September 29, 2021 with the registering of 1,178 cases and 17 deaths.
With the detection of fresh cases after testing 23,435 samples, the daily-case positivity rose to 4.86 per cent from Wednesday’s 3.20 per cent during the period, according to the DGHS.
Also read: One dose of vaccine must to attend schools: Cabinet Secretary
The fresh numbers took the country’s total fatalities to 28,097 while the caseload mounted to 15,89,947.
Meanwhile, the mortality rate remained static at 1.77 per cent during the period.
Besides, the recovery rate further declined to 97.51 per cent with the recovery of 196 more patients during the 24-hour period.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh’s total tally of Omicron cases stood at 10 with detection of three cases on December 31, according to GISAID, a global initiative on sharing all influenza data.
On December 9, Bangladesh again logged zero Covid-related death after nearly three weeks as the pandemic was apparently showing signs of easing.
The country reported this year’s first zero Covid-related death in a single day on November 20 along with 178 infections since the pandemic broke out in Bangladesh in March 2020.
Bangladesh reported the highest number of daily fatalities of 264 on August 10 this year, while the highest daily caseload was 16,230 on July 28 this year.
Also read: Two India returnees test positive for Covid
Restrictions
The government is going to put some restrictions amid the surge in Covid-19 cases, including plying public transport at their half capacities and closing shops and markets by 8pm, said Health Minister Zahid Maleque on Tuesday.
“Public buses will operate at half of their capacities while shops and shopping malls will have to be closed by 8 pm instead of 10 pm,” Maleque said while talking to reporters at the Secretariat.
Deputy Commissioners have been asked to enforce the directives within seven days, he added.
However, the government is not considering any lockdown in the country right now and it will think about it if the infection rate goes up further, said the health minister.
New York’s COVID surge is back — and so is its mask mandate
Facing a cold-weather surge in COVID-19 infections, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Friday that masks will be required in all indoor public places unless the businesses or venues implement a vaccine requirement.
Hochul said the decision to reinstitute a mask mandate was based on a rising number of cases and hospitalizations, which has been especially pronounced in parts of upstate New York.
New York enacted a mask mandate at the beginning of the pandemic in April 2020 that ended in June 2021 for vaccinated individuals. The new mask mandate applies to both patrons and staff and will be in effect from Monday to Jan. 15, after which the state will reevaluate.
“We’re entering a time of uncertainty and we could either plateau here or our cases could get out of control,” Hochul warned at a public appearance in New York City.
New York joins several states with similar indoor mask mandates, including Washington, Oregon, Illinois, New Mexico, Nevada and Hawaii.
Mask mandates have become a hot-button issue. For weeks, Hochul has said local governments will decide whether to reimpose COVID-19 protocols. She’s expressed caution about whether resistant communities would follow stricter rules.
Hochul’s announcement Friday was cheered by some fellow Democrats and a union representing retail and grocery workers, even as Republicans called it an overreach and an unnecessary burden on businesses.
Violators could face civil and criminal penalties, including a maximum fine of $1,000. While Hochul said local health departments will be in charge of enforcing the requirements, Republican Rockland County Executive Ed Day said the governor’s staff was unable to provide detailed information about the new requirement.
Also read: US expands Pfizer COVID boosters, opens extra dose to age 16
“I told the governor’s staff that we cannot and will not enforce this requirement as it currently stands,” Day said in a prepared release.
Niagara County Legislature Chair Becky Wydysh, a Republican, said local officials don’t believe a mandate is the best use of resources. The county will take an “educate to cooperate approach” to enforcement, Wydysh said in a statement.
News of the mandate was welcome at the Lake Placid Christmas Company, a shop on Main Street in the tourist-friendly Adirondack village.
“Our employees all wear masks, but we stopped requiring all of our customers to wear masks because it was too hard to enforce,” said manager Scott Delahant. “Quite frankly, I got sick of arguing with people.”
He said many shoppers browse barefaced, despite a sign on the door encouraging mask wearing and a basket of free disposable masks.
Also read: Bangladesh again reports zero Covid fatality in nearly 3 weeks
Hochul announced the mask mandate at a social service agency in Manhattan, where most people already wear masks. New York City requires vaccinations for indoor restaurant dining, entertainment and gyms, and those vaccine-requiring venues will be unaffected by the new rule.
The state recorded more than 68,000 positive tests for the virus in the seven-day period that ended Wednesday. That’s the most in any seven-day stretch since the start of February, and rates are rising in nearly all counties.
“We are heading upward in a direction that I no longer find sustainable,” Hochul said.
Nearly 3,500 people are hospitalized with confirmed COVID-19 cases in New York — nearly double from 1,794 on Nov. 7.
The surge is especially pronounced in some areas of upstate New York, which has accounted for nearly three-fourths of confirmed COVID-19 deaths in hospitals since August. Several upstate counties have recently enacted mask mandates, including Erie County, which includes Buffalo.
In Sullivan County in the mid-Hudson Valley, public health director Nancy McGraw said people have become complacent about the virus and she supports the mask mandate. She said vaccination rates are disappointingly low in remote areas including Woodbourne, where only 36% of roughly 3,000 residents are fully vaccinated.
“We have very limited resources for enforcement and people need to do the right thing,” McGraw said. “Public responsibility is key here.”
New York has the seventh highest rate of fully vaccinated residents: 70.1% as of federal data updated Friday. But fewer than 60% of residents are fully vaccinated in more than 500 zip codes throughout New York, according to data for about 1,300 zip codes provided by the state health agency.
Thirty-two upstate hospitals in Niagara and elsewhere had to limit performing nonessential elective surgeries starting Thursday because of capacity issues.
One of the state’s worst hit hospitals, Glen Falls Hospital in Warren County, said 50 out of 165 patients had COVID-19 as of Wednesday. That’s the most infected patients the hospital’s ever reported, according to state data.
“We remain very busy across all units in the hospital,” hospital spokesperson F. Raymond Agnew said. He said 70% of COVID-19 admissions are unvaccinated people.
Factories reopen amid Covid surge as ‘economy falters’
Export-oriented industries resumed operation on Sunday, the 10th day of the ongoing stringent lockdown, amid warnings against Covid surge as workers started returning to their workplaces without maintaining health protocols.
The workers in their thousands have been on their way back to their workplaces in Narayanganj, Gazipur and Mymensingh in Dhaka division since Friday after the government’s announcement of reopening factories.
Read:Vessels to move till 12 pm Sunday to carry factory workers
The workers took their arduous journeys to get back to their workplaces as public transport remained suspended due to the lockdown.
They walked miles for miles or moved on in hired auto-rickshaws, motorbikes, goods-laden vehicles in their desperate bid to join work.
Later, the government on Saturday night allowed public transport to operate until 12 pm on Sunday to facilitate the return of workers.
Buses started plying roads from early Sunday and people were seen entering the capital through Gabtoli, Abdullahpur, Mohakhali, Sayedabad, Postagola and Babubazar point by bus or on foot.
The Covid-19 crisis has hit the country’s economy hard and jeopardized its impressive achievements in poverty reduction, according to economists.
Covid surge in Bangladesh: Primary schools to remain shut until Aug 31
Amid the recent spike in Coronavirus, the government has extended the closure of primary schools and kindergartens across Bangladesh until August 31 to protect students from virus infections.
The decision in this regard was taken on Friday, said a handout came from the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education.
The handout said students have to abide by health guidelines and regulations issued from time to time by the Prime Minister's Office, Cabinet Division, Ministry of Public Administration and Health Services Department.
Also read: Covid-19 in Bangladesh: Schools, colleges to remain closed until Aug 31
The government has also extended the closure of secondary and higher secondary-level educational institutions until August 31.
Covid situation in Bangladesh
As the Delta variant of Covid-19 engulfed the country, Bangladesh recorded 239 more deaths caused by the virus in 24 hours till Thursday morning.
Besides, 15,271 new people came out Covid positive during the period after the test of 52,282 samples, according to a handout issued by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
The fresh cases took the country’s Covid death tally to 20,255 today while the caseload to 1,226,253.
The country has been seeing nearly 200 deaths a day for the past two weeks, shattering the records of daily cases and deaths almost every other day.
Also read: Reopening of schools cannot wait: UNICEF, UNESCO
Meanwhile, the daily test-positivity rate declined slightly to 29.21% from Wednesday's 30.12% while the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends a 5% or below rate.
However, the case fatality rate remained unchanged at 1.65 % during the period, said the DGHS.
Thakurgaon records 132 fresh Covid cases, 7 deaths
Thakurgaon logged 132 fresh Covid cases and seven deaths in 24 hours till Sunday morning.
The new cases of infections were detected after the test of 386 samples, said civil surgeon Dr Mahfuzar Rahman Sarkar.
"The new cases have pushed up the district’s positivity rate to 46.15%," he said.
Of the total infected people, 46 were from Sadar upazila, 15 from Baliadangi, 21 from Pirganj, 40 from Ranishankoil and nine from Haripur upazilas of the district.
So far, some 3735 people in Thakurgaon have been infected with the virus, while 94 have died of Covid.
Also read: Thakurgaon records highest single-day rise in Covid cases at 109
Some 2261 people have recovered from the deadly virus as of now.
Meanwhile, the local administration has filed 32 cases and fined people Tk 28,100 for flouting lockdown rules on Saturday.
Also read: Cattle markets in Thakurgaon closed for a week due to Covid-19
The government imposed a nationwide lockdown on July 1 for one week to break the chain of Covid transmission.
Read:Thakurgaon seals border areas to contain Covid
Khulna gasps for breath
Amid an alarming surge in Covid-19 cases and deaths over the past few weeks, Khulna division is now clamouring for oxygen -- a component key in saving the lives of critical patients.
While few hospitals in Khulna division have already run out of the life-saving gas, many other medical facilities are operating on the edge due to an acute shortage of oxygen.
In the past week, seven breathless Covid-19 patients have died at Satkhira Medical College Hospital in Satkhira district due to the unavailability of oxygen. A probe has been ordered into the deaths on June 30.
Also read: Dire situation at Jhenaidah as infections soar, Covid unit overrun, oxygen to run out in 3 days
In Khulna district, the largest specialised government hospital is overwhelmed by a sudden surge in Covid cases -- it has not only stopped corona testing but is also scrambling for beds and oxygen.
Alarming Covid surge in Khulna division; death toll crosses 1,000
Amid the worsening Covid-19 situation in Khulna division, health authorities reported 30 deaths in the division in 24 hours till Monday morning, bringing the total death toll to over 1,000.
Besides, 1,464 people were found infected with the deadly virus during the 24-hour period, taking the total tally to 53, 631 in 10 districts of the Khulna division.
Rasheda Sultana, director (Health) of Khulna division, said nine people died in Kushtia while six in Khulna, four each in Meherpur and Jhenaidah, two each in Chuadanga and Bagerhat and one each in Satkhira, Jashore and Narail districts under the Khulna division.
Also read: Khulna division sees 20 Covid deaths in a day
So far, 1,011 people have died in the division while 36,978 recovered from the virus.
Dr Sheikh Sadia Monowara Usha, medical officer at the Khulna Civil Surgeon office, said six people have died in 24 hours in Khulna district while 299 found infected after conducting 768 tests. The infection positivity rate now stands 40%.
Dr Suhash Ranjan Haldar of Khulna Corona Dedicated Hospital said 169 people are currently undergoing treatment at the hospital.
Also read: 28 more Covid deaths recorded in a day in Khulna
Some 41 people were admitted to the hospital with Covid-19 symptoms in the past 24 hours till Monday morning, he said.