Rajshahi division saw the highest number of deaths with Covid-like symptoms until August 17, taking the country’s total death toll to 5,018, according to a latest report.
However, deaths with Covid-19 symptoms witnessed a decline in the past two weeks from August 4 to August 17 2021, compared to July 21 to August 3.
During the period from 22 March 2020 to 17 August 2021, Rajshahi division saw 1,222 deaths with Covid symptoms while Khulna saw 1,025 which was the second highest, disclosed a Bangladesh Peace Observatory (BPO) report.
The report was prepared under the Centre for Genocide Studies at Dhaka University.
Health experts suggested that the capacity of the country’s different hospitals in providing proper treatment of the Covid-19 patients be enhanced further as the hospitals are receiving less patients compared to the lockdown situation.
The vaccinations must be accelerated as the mortality rate has risen recently though the number of hospitalised patients saw a declining trend, they added.
Earlier, the government had announced the lifting of the lockdown from August 11.
They also laid emphasis on increasing seriousness and carefulness in data preparation to take better and appropriate actions.
Talking to The Financial Express, Prof Muzaherul Huq, former adviser of WHO, Southeast Asia region, said the government should focus on mass vaccination across the country to prevent both the infections and deaths.
He also suggested ensuring 70-80 per cent vaccination of the population as early as possible, prioritising health workers, the elderly and the physically challenged.
Dhaka division saw 652 deaths with Covid symptoms while it was 791 in Chattogram division.
Rangpur division had the lowest such deaths at 106, according to the BPO report.
Sylhet, Mymensingh and Barishal divisions reported 113, 471 and 638 deaths respectively.
A total of 583 people died from August 4 to August 17 while there were 700 from July 21 to August 3.
A total of 1,259 people were arrested, and more than 1429 fines were awarded from 4 August to 17 August 2021. Most of them were penalised for violating health guidelines and ignoring wearing masks.
It was based on information from 25 media outlets, including national and local dailies, TV channels and news portals. However, this information was not verified at field level.
A total of 1,259 people were arrested, and more than 1,429 fines were awarded from 4 August to 17 August 2021.
Most of them were penalised for violating health guidelines and ignoring wearing masks, as per the report.
Three protests related to the COVID-19 pandemic were reported from 4 August 2021 to 17 August 2021, it said.
Citing the official data, Virologist Dr Nazrul Islam, a member of the National Technical Advisory Committee on Covid-19 told The Financial Express that the rate of fatalities from Covid-19 remained at 1.68 per cent on August 10 while such fatality rate is now 1.74 per cent on Sunday.
Terming that the figure was not a good sign, Dr Nazrul said collective efforts and mass awareness are needed to curb the virus.
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