Another Covid-19 death was reported in the country yesterday while the infection rate has been on a steady rise for the past month.

According to the Directorate General of Health Services, this is the third Covid-related death in the country this year, after two deaths were reported on January 11 and January 14. Before January 11, the last Covid death in the country was recorded on September 13 last year.

The patient who died yesterday was a male aged between 61-70 and his death was reported from the Chattogram division.

With 34 new cases recorded yesterday, the Covid-19 infection rate has now shot up to 5.92 percent. The day before, it was 5.83, while on Friday, it was 5.12, indicating an upward trend in the daily infection rate.

In December 20, the rate was 0.66 percent.

The total positivity rate currently stands at 13.09 percent.

While the infection rate has been on a sudden rise in the country over the past few days, the reason behind it is yet to be determined.

Experts fear that JN.1, a subvariant of Omicron, which the WHO termed "variant to watch for" as it spreads fast, may be behind it. They have suggested maintaining hygiene rules.

According to the DGHS, with the 34 new cases recorded in the last 24 hours till 8:00am yesterday, the total number of confirmed cases is now 20,46,724. On Saturday, 13 new cases were reported.

With the new death, the total number of fatalities rose to 29,480 – taking the overall fatality rate to 1.44 percent.

Meanwhile, 18 patients recovered during this period. The total number of recoveries now stands at 20,14,171, with the recovery rate at 98.41 percent.

Due to the sudden rise in infection rate, the government has decided to administer Covid-19 vaccination again.

Prof Tahmina Shirin, director of the Institute of Epidemiology, Research and Disease Control, said it is not yet certain whether the new subvariant is related to the recent increase in the infection rate.

"People who are already vaccinated and will be taking the booster dose will be protected from the new subvariant."

She added that the number of reported detections does not give the true number of infections, as many people do not get tested for Covid-19 despite seeing symptoms.