Bangladesh records 201 single-day COVID deaths as cases escalate | Coronavirus pandemic News

Bangladesh reported 201 COVID-19 deaths on Wednesday, the highest single-day toll since the pandemic began in March last year.

The death toll for the first time exceeded 200 marks in a 24-hour cycle of about 165 million people in the South Asian nation, bringing the total to 15,593 deaths.

The maximum of 164 deaths from the previous day was recorded on Monday. The first week of July saw 1,090 deaths, the highest week in the country’s pandemic.

In the last 24 hours, a total of 11,162 people were diagnosed with the disease, bringing the total to 9,777,668, officials said on Wednesday.

With new records of coronavirus cases and deaths set in, Bangladesh extended its international shutdown on Monday by another week.

The Delta variant of coronavirus, first identified in neighboring India, is behind the rise in infections in Bangladesh, worsens its health system and raises fears of a medical oxygen crisis.

The change hit last month in the border regions of Bangladesh in the northern and south-western regions and is now spreading rapidly in urban and rural areas across the country.

The most active variant

Tahmina Shirin, director of the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) in the capital Dhaka, told Al Jazeera that they found the Delta variant in 78% of all samples sequenced in the last month.

The IEDCR first detected the Delta variant in Bangladesh on May 8th. The following month they found that the variant already had community transmission in the country.

While the districts bordering India, including Dinajpur, Chapainawabganj, Pirojpur, Khulna and Satkhira, witnessed the proliferation of the Delta variant, Shirin said that now the transmission of Daca has also begun to dominate.

“We believe that the strict blockade has helped to slow the spread of the Delta variant, but it has not been able to stop it completely,” he said.

Shirin said people who have been shot with two coronavirus vaccines are also infected with the Delta variant.

“Still the best option we have to fight this variant is to get fully vaccinated,” he said.

Only 3% of the population of Bangladesh has received two doses of the vaccine.

After a promising start to the year, the country’s inoculation program was a success in India, facing a second deadly wave of the virus after AstraZeneca stopped exporting shots.

The vaccination program, however, was rejuvenated over the weekend after Bangladesh received 2.5 million doses of the Modern vaccine from the United States and two million doses of the Sinopharm vaccine from China.

Experts worry as the festivities begin

Experts, meanwhile, are worried and fearful of the worst in the coming days, as two events of potential “super-spreaders” – the famous beef market and Eid al-Adha – are on the corner.

Every year before the Muslim festival, a number of temporary camps are set up, mainly in the port city of Dacan and Chattogram, where cattle traders from all over the country sell sacrificial animals. Billions go to those markets.

The two largest cities witness the exodus of millions of people taking trains, buses, ferries and private vehicles to reach the countryside to celebrate the holiday with their families.

Be-Nazir Ahmed, an infectious disease expert in Bangladesh, told Al Jazeera that the government should extend the strict detention that will end on July 14 to Eid al-Adha.

“The government should also prevent cattle traders from coming to the capital from rural areas, especially from areas bordering India with areas where COVID infections are prevalent,” he said.

Ahmed said that if the blockade is calmed down and people are allowed to move, the country could have a “big COVID explosion” after the Eid al-Adha festival.

“The number will be huge. We will be dealing with a situation like India a few months ago, ”said Ahmed, a former director of disease control at the Bangladesh Directorate of Health Service (DGHS).

DGHS spokesman Nazmul Islam said government officials were aware that the situation was dire if the blockade was relaxed before the Muslim party.

“If the current trend in cases continues, a tight lock could be extended,” he said.

Islam says the government is currently focusing on raising the number of hospital beds and ensuring adequate manpower in COVID-19 hospitals.

“We are also looking at the need to establish rural hospitals, especially outside of Dhaka,” he said.