Although the rate of Covid-19 infection in the country is decreasing, health guidelines will be maintained until 100 percent of the population is vaccinated, DGHS spokesperson and Director (disease control) Dr Nazmul Islam said today.

"Declining infection rate is a hopeful sign but there is no reason to feel complacency," he said during the regular health bulletin of the directorate on Covid-19 infection situation in the country.

"In the last seven days 126,840 samples have been tested for Covid-19 which is 12 percent lower than the previous seven days," he added.

The number of new infections has decreased 32 percent in the last seven days from the previous week, meanwhile, the number of fatalities has decreased 21 percent, said the DGHS director.

In the last seven days daily infection rate mostly remained below 2 percent except on October 19 when a 2.2 percent infection rate was reported, he added.

"Overall, the infection rate is showing a downward trend for a month which is continuing," added the DGHS spokesperson.

Since January this year, most of the infections were logged in July and August while the country saw 336,226 and 223,480 cases respectively, he said.

"Compared to that, just 11,506 cases reported so far in October is quite an improvement," said Nazmul.

The number of patients in Covid-19 dedicated hospitals have declined and people are seeking telemedicine services much less now, he also said.

While replying to a question, he said Bangladesh cannot be considered free of Covid-19 yet as every day new patients are being detected.

In the last week of the current month or at the beginning of next month they will be able to confirm the total number of school-going students who have registered for the Covid-19 vaccine, said the DGHS director.