Bangladesh posts 4,334 COVID cases in a day, another 77 die

Bangladesh has reported 4,334 new cases of COVID-19 in a day, taking the tally of infections to 883,138.

The death toll surged by 77 in the same period to 14,053, according to the latest government released on Saturday.

It took only 15 days for the death toll to reach 14,000 from 13,000 amid a surge in infections that has prompted the government to announce a strict lockdown starting on Monday.  

After the second wave of infections had begun, Bangladesh recorded 1,000 deaths from the coronavirus in 10 days in the second half of April. The daily death count reached record 112 on Apr 19.

On Friday, the government confirmed 108 deaths from the disease.   

A division-wide breakdown on Saturday found Dhaka recorded the highest daily COVID tally of 1,921 cases, followed by Khulna, a recent hotspot, with 848 and Chattogram with 654.

Chattogram saw 20 deaths, the most among the eight divisions, in the 24 hours to 8 am Saturday. Khulna counted 19 deaths and Dhaka 17 in the same period.

Nationwide, another 3,295 people recovered from the illness, bringing the total number of recoveries to 800,854.

As many as 19,262 samples were tested across the country, for a positivity rate of 22.50 percent.

The latest figures put the recovery rate at 90.68 percent and the mortality rate at 1.59 percent.

Globally, over 180.41 million people have been infected by the novel coronavirus and 3.90 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.