COVID deaths drop 33.15pc in a week, cases too as lockdown lingers on

The number of deaths from COVID-19 has dropped by 33.15 percent across Bangladesh on the week past as a nationwide lockdown to limit the spread of the coronavirus drags on.

In the 19th epidemiological week of the year until Saturday, the Directorate General of Health Services confirmed 246 deaths from the disease. The figure was 368 in the previous week.

Besides deaths, the number of tests and positivity rate among the tested samples also fell.

Public health expert Dr Mushtuq Husain, who advises the government on COVID-19, believes the lockdown restrictions have pushed deaths and infections down.

“These are results of the lockdown clamped two weeks ago when the people followed the health rules in a full-fledged lockdown.”   

Dr Mushtuq said it would take two more weeks to understand the effects of exodus of Eid holidaymakers from cities and towns, and the crowds at malls for Eid shopping. The number of worshippers at mosques also increased.

“These will result in a slight rise in infections,” said the former chief scientific officer of the government’s disease control agency IEDCR.

The DGHS said the number of cases dropped by 33.56 percent to 7,669 in the past week from 11,543 in the previous week.

The number of tests fell by 31.63 percent to 88,307 from 129,158.

In the past week, as many as 14,602 people recovered from the disease, a 34.11 percent drop from the previous week’s 22,162.

New coronavirus cases began to drop in November last year before the second wave started in mid-February.

In April, Bangladesh recorded 147,837 COVID-19 cases while the death toll rose by 2,404 – highest for a month since the pandemic hit the country in March last year.