2,525 cases in 24hrs, highest in 3 months

The country yesterday reported 2,525 new cases of Covid-19 -- the highest for a single day in nearly three months.

Besides, 35 people died from Covid-19 in 24 hours till 8:00am yesterday, according to a DGHS press release.

On September 2, 2,582 people were reported coronavirus positive. After that, the numbers of new cases and deaths continued to decrease until early last month.

Covid-19 cases rose by 33.49 percent last month compared to the number recorded in October.

During the first 30 days of October, the Directorate General of Health Services reported 42,885 confirmed cases, while the 30 days of November saw a higher figure of confirmed cases -- 57,248. 

Experts apprehended that numbers of both the infections and deaths may go up this month.

As the infections started increasing with cool weather sweeping across the country, they, however, said the daily detection rate is too little due to inadequate testing compared to the country's population.

With the latest figure, the total number of infected patients rose to 4,64,932 while the death toll reached 6,644.

Including yesterday's number, the death rate in terms of all confirmed cases remained stagnant at 1.43 percent like the previous few days.

"As the infections are increasing, we will see more loss of lives in the coming days. Infected people, especially those with comorbidities, need to be taken to hospitals," Prof Mushtaq Hussain, consultant of the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research, told The Daily Star recently.

Experts also stressed on more tests daily.

Prof Dr Ridwanur Rahman, an infectious disease specialist, said, "The figures we are getting daily are only a snapshot of the whole picture. To get the real picture, we will need at least five lakh tests daily."

Terming the transmission control measures inadequate, he said, "There is no suppressive measures in the country. It is as like as the epidemic situation like the Spanish flu in 1918. The infections will continue until either 60-70 percent population are infected or they are vaccinated."

Meanwhile, the positivity rate also increased in the 24 hours. It was 16.43 percent against 15,372 tests in 118 labs across the country.

In the previous day, the positivity rate was 13.02 percent.

At the beginning of the Covid-19 outbreak, the daily positivity rate was comparatively low, but it rose to 25 percent of those tested in late May. Until the third week of August, the positivity rate was over 20 percent, which came down to 10 percent in October.

The positivity rate started to rise again since the beginning of November.

In the same 24 hours, 2,539 Covid-19 patients recovered, taking the total number of recoveries to 3,80,711. It is around 82 percent of all confirmed cases.

Of yesterday's deceased, 24 were males and 11 females.

All of them died in hospitals.

Of them, 25 were from Dhaka division, two from Khulna division and four from Rajshahi division and one each was from Chattogram, Sylhet, Rangpur and Mymensingh divisions.

So far, Dhaka division saw more than half of the Covid-19 casualties, according to the DGHS data.