Bangladesh logs 212 COVID deaths, a daily record, as caseload tops 1 million

Bangladesh has crossed the grim milestones of 1 million COVID-19 cases and 16,000 deaths amid a catastrophic surge in infections across the country.

The government on Friday reported 212 new fatalities from the coronavirus infection, a new daily record, taking the death toll to 16,004.

Meanwhile, the caseload surged by 11,324 in the 24 hours to 8 am Friday, according to the latest government data.

Khulna accounted for 79 fatalities in the single-day count, the most among the eight divisions in the country. Dhaka was second with 53 deaths, followed by Chattogram with 26 and Rajshahi with 23.

In terms of new cases, Dhaka posted the highest daily tally among the eight divisions with 4,313. Chattogram saw 1,859 and Khulna 1,565, while Rajshahi saw 1,246 new infections in the past 24 hours.

Nationwide, another 6,038 people recovered from the illness, bringing the total number of recoveries to 862,384.

As many as 36,586 samples were tested across the country, for a positivity rate of 30.95 percent. The latest figures put the recovery rate at 86.19 percent and the mortality rate at 1.60 percent.

Bangladesh is currently facing a renewed surge in COVID-19 cases and deaths, prompting the government to impose its harshest lockdown yet.

After record infections and deaths in April, June was the second cruellest month for Bangladesh since the coronavirus pandemic struck the country in March 2020.

Globally, over 185.65 million people have been infected by the novel coronavirus and 4.01 million have died, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

Infections have been reported in more than 210 countries and territories since the first cases were identified in China in December 2019.