Bangladesh COVID cases more than double in a week amid omicron fears

Bangladesh's COVID-19 caseload has more than doubled in the space of a week amid mounting fears over the spread of the highly-contagious omicron variant.

The government confirmed 7,234 cases in the seven days to Sunday, a 125 percent jump from a week ago.

As many as 25 fatalities from the coronavirus were registered in the same period, marking a 47 percent increase week-on-week.

On Sunday, the health directorate reported 1,491 new COVID-19 cases, taking the total caseload to 1,593,700.

It is a 33.6 percent increase from Saturday and the highest daily count since Sept 21, 2021.

Meanwhile, the death toll climbed by three to 28,102 in the past 24 hours.

As many as 21,980 samples were tested across the country, for a positivity rate of 6.78 percent, a 12-week high.

“The infection rate was below 2 percent for over two months, but it has been increasing slightly in the past week,” said Dr Md Nazmul Islam, director of the disease control department at the Directorate General of Health Services.

“We have been seeing the COVID graph go up the past few days.”

The daily positivity rate peaked at 30 percent during the second wave of infections fuelled by the delta variant in the July-August period last year before gradually tailing off.