Virus cases keep on rising

A record 4,008 cases of the novel coronavirus were reported in the country yesterday.

New cases also jumped the previous day as well. However, health officials earlier this week said transmission rate had peaked and might begin to fall in a few days.

Healthcare experts, however, have been saying that transmission would not come under control until preventive measures are strictly implemented.

"There is only one way to tackle the virus and that is taking active measures like maintaining physical distance, early detection, contact tracing and treating infected patients in isolation," Prof Mushtuq Hussain, consultant of the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research, told The Daily Star yesterday.

Prof Saif Ullah Munshi, chairman of virology at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, said, "Even after full implementation of the zone-wise approach, it will take a minimum of two weeks to observe a downward trend in transmission."

On Saturday, ASM Alamgir, principal scientific officer of virology at the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR), told reporters that the transmission may start to go down within the next four to five days.

Asked about it yesterday, Alamgir said, "It is my personal observation. The trend may start going down within days."

On Tuesday, Prof Abul Kalam Azad, director general of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), also told this newspaper that the transmission rate might start to go downwards within a week.

Meanwhile, in the 24 hours preceding 2:30pm yesterday, 43 Covid-19 patients were reported dead.

The total number of confirmed cases rose to 98,489 while the death toll reached at 1,305, said Prof Nasima Sultana, additional director general (administration) of the DGHS, during yesterday's daily briefing.

Of all the infected, 71 percent were male and 29 percent were female, according to the IEDCR.

According to the data, 77 percent of the deceased were male and 23 percent were female.

In the previous four days, the numbers of daily new cases reported were below 4,000 with the hitherto highest 3,862 cases recorded on Tuesday.

Dhaka city remains the worst affected region, with 24,187 infected patients, followed Chattogram where 3,768 cases were detected as of yesterday.

Within the last 16 days, the number of confirmed cases almost doubled.

On June 1, the country passed the 50,000 confirmed cases mark and the 75,000 mark on June 11.

On April 6, number of confirmed case were only 100.

Meanwhile, 1,925 more Covid-19 patients have recovered, taking the total to 38,189, Nasima said.

The current recovery rate is 38.77 percent, she said.

In the last 24 hours, 17,527 samples were tested by 61 labs across the country.

A total of 718 people were put under isolation, she added.

Among the 43 reported dead yesterday, 28 were males and 15 females, she said, adding that 21 were from Dhaka, 12 from Chattogram, four from Rajshahi, two from Khulna, one from Sylhet, two from Mymensingh, and one from Rangpur divisions.

One of the deceased was less than 10 years old, one between 11 and 20, one between 21 and 30, four between 31 and 40, four between 41 and 50, nine between 51 and 60, 12 between 61 and 70, nine between 71 and 80, and the other two between 81 and 90 years old.