A total of 7,626 new cases of coronavirus were detected in the last 24, which is the highest ever single-day infection so far, raising the total number of infections to 6,59,278 across the country.

Besides, a total of 63 deaths from the deadly virus were reported over the same period, raising the total number of deaths to 9,447 across the country.

A press release issued by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) confirmed the development on Wednesday (April 07).

Bangladesh has registered 50 deaths from Covid-19 in the 24 hours to Friday morning. With the latest development, the total number of deaths reached 9,155 in the country.

The country also logged a total of 624,594coronavirus cases with 6,830 people testing positive over the same period.

The Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) revealed the latest figures on Covid-19 in the country with a press release on Friday.

Tuesday’s test positivity rate is the highest recorded in the last seven months.

It was August 22 last when the country had recorded a higher infection rate – 19.95%.

The daily infection rate was below 5% for about two months this year but it started to rise from the second week of March.

It saw a rise on Monday as it jumped to 18.38% from 17.65% the previous day and it is evident from the latest figures that the trend of the pandemic is upward.

With the fresh cases, the total number of cases now stands at 605,937.

The country recorded 45 more Covid deaths between Monday and Tuesday mornings, taking the total death toll to 8,994, the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) said in a press release.

Tuesday was the second consecutive day that the daily tally of new cases and deaths crossed the 5,000 and 45-mark respectively.

More 47 Covid fatalities were recorded on August 28, 2020.

Of the 45 new deceased, 28 were male, and 17 female. Total 37 people died in Dhaka division, three in Chittagong, two each in Rajshahi and Khulna divisions, and one in Sylhet division.

So far, 5,118 people died in the Dhaka division, 1,631 in Chittagong, 501 in Rajshahi, 579 in Khulna, 273 in Barisal, 318 in Sylhet, 373 in Rangpur, and 201 in Mymensingh.

The mortality rate against the total number of cases detected so far stands at 1.48%.

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Meanwhile, 2,162 people recovered from Covid-19 over the preceding 24 hours.

Up till now, 540,180 patients — 89.15% — have recovered from the disease caused by coronavirus.

The DGHS said 27,350 samples were collected from suspected Covid-19 patients in the last 24 hours while a total of 26,620 samples were tested in government and private testing facilities.

To date, as many as 4,643,645 tests have been conducted in the country. The overall infection rate in the country stands at 13.05%.

On March 18, 202, Bangladesh had reported its first Covid-19 death.

Following a spike in infections, the government took a tougher stance to fight the pandemic.

The Health Ministry also recently sent letters to districts, directing the officials concerned to impose fines on people flouting Covid-19 protocols, after the recent surge in cases.

The country launched a countrywide vaccination drive on February 7. As the daily infection rate keeps rising, the government extended the closure of schools and colleges until May 23.

The Covid-19 first broke out in China’s Wuhan city in late December, 2019, and quickly spread throughout the world, becoming a pandemic in less than three months.

Until Tuesday afternoon, the fast-spreading novel coronavirus claimed over 2,806,000 lives after infecting more than 128,341,000 people across the world while over 103,549,000 people recovered, according to worldometer.

The global Covid-19 fatalities surged past 2.7 million on Tuesday as the number of deaths rose for the first time in six weeks.

The total death toll and cases now stand at 2,722,715 and 123,635,513, respectively, according to Johns Hopkins University (JHU).

The US has so far registered 29,867,690 cases and 542,888 fatalities. India’s Covid-19 tally reached 11,646,081 on Tuesday. Besides, the fatalities climbed to 159,967.

The number of daily active cases has been on the rise over the past few days, even as another wave of Covid-19 looms large in India.

In January, the number of daily cases in the country came down to below 10,000. As many as 9,102 new cases were reported between January 25 and 26, which was the lowest in the previous 237 days. Prior to that, the lowest number of daily new cases were 9,304 — registered on June 4, 2020.

Brazil on Monday said 1,383 more people died from the novel coronavirus disease in 24 hours, raising the national death toll to 295,425.

According to the Ministry of Health, tests detected 49,293 new cases, bringing the nationwide count to 12,047,526.

Brazil is one of the countries hardest hit by the virus worldwide in terms of both deaths and cases, second only to the United States.

Since January, Brazil has experienced a new wave of infections, forcing several states and cities to step up social distancing measures.

Situation in Bangladesh

Bangladesh witnessed a big jump in the number of Covid-19 deaths and infections as health authorities recorded 30 more deaths and 2,809 new cases in 24 hours till Monday morning.

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With the new cases, Bangladesh saw the worst daily increase since January this year. The infection rate jumped to 11.19%, which was 10.29% a day before.

Health experts said poor adherence to health safety rules is causing the quick surge in the virus infection rate in the country. The detection of its new variant has also become a cause of concern.

Ten EU-returnees have so far been detected with the new strain of Covid-19 in Bangladesh, which was first reported in the UK, said Health Minister Zahid Maleque on March 17.

With the latest figures, the death toll from Covid-19 in Bangladesh have surged to 8,720 and the total infections to 573,687, said the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).

A DGHS handout said the mortality rate in Bangladesh stood at 1.52% for the fourth consecutive day after remaining static at 1.53% over the past week.

The coronavirus situation in Bangladesh is changing fast after showing a downtrend in both the death toll and new cases.

On January 19, Bangladesh reported its virus infection rate at just 5% and at one stage it fell below 3%. The virus cases started soaring again on February 9.

In Bangladesh, the DGHS media release says, 524,159 patients — 91.37% –have so far recovered from the virus infection, including 1,754 in the past 24 hours.

Bangladesh reported its first Covid-19 cases on March 8, 2020, while the first death on March 18 the same year.

Meanwhile, the nationwide Covid-19 vaccination drive is on in the country. Bangladesh has vaccinated 4,840,969 people since it rolled out the drive on February 7.

Besides, a total of 446 new cases were detected over the same period, taking the total number of infected cases to 5,41,038 across the country.

A press release issued by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) confirmed the development on Monday (February 15).

Meanwhile, some 641 people made recovery from the deadly virus over the same period, bringing the total recoveries to 4,87,870.

Besides, some 1,318 new cases were detected over the same period, taking the total number of infected cases to 5,03,501 across the country.

A press release issued by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) confirmed the development on Tuesday (December 22).

The death toll climbed to 7,312 after 32 fatalities were registered in the 24 hours to 8 am Monday, according to data released by the government.

The number of fresh recoveries outpaced active cases in the same period as another 2,167 patients recovered from the illness through treatment at home and in hospital care, bringing the total to 439,694, reports bdnews24.com.

As many as 15,660 samples were tested at 160 authorised labs across the country in the last 24 hours, yielding a positivity rate of 9.38 per cent.

The latest official figures put the recovery rate at 87.56 per cent while the mortality rate stands at 1.46 per cent.

Globally, over 76.82 million people have been infected by the novel coronavirus and 1.69 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.

Besides, some 1,153 new cases were detected over the same period, taking the total number of infected cases to 5,00,713 across the country.

A press release issued by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) confirmed the development on Sunday (December 20).

The recovery count rose to 4,37,527 after another 1,926 patients were discharged from the hospitals during the period, a press release of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) said today.

“Thirty-eight more COVID-19 patients died in the last 24 hours, increasing the death toll from the pandemic to 7,280,” the release said.

It said the tally of infections has surged to 5,00,713 as 1,153 new cases were confirmed in the last 24 hours.

A total of 13,316 samples were tested at 160 authorized laboratories across the country during the time.

Of the total sample tests in the past 24 hours, 8.66 percent tested positive, while 16.28 percent cases were detected from the total tests conducted so far, the release added.

Among the total infections, 87.38 percent patients have recovered, while 1.45 percent died so far since the first COVID-19 positive cases were reported in the country on March 8.

Big challenges await carriers leading the airlift, as well as the drugmakers, logistics firms, governments and international agencies planning the deployment across networks blighted by the pandemic.

The gargantuan effort should nonetheless help airlines involved to trim their crisis losses, experts say, while bringing additional benefits to the broader sector, from supporting cargo pricing and revenue to restoring routes.

Developing vaccines in record time was the easy part, or “the equivalent of building base camp at Everest”, according to World Health Organization vaccines director Kate O’Brien.

“The delivery of these vaccines, the confidence in communities, the acceptance of vaccines and ensuring that people are in fact immunized with the right number of doses – (this) is what it’s going to take to scale the peak,” she said recently.

Britain is about to become the first country to begin administering the Pfizer-BioNTech jab, which requires storage below minus 70 Celsius. Moderna’s shot, stored at -20C, is close behind.

In line for major roles are freight specialists and airlines with large cargo arms – such as Germany’s Lufthansa, Air France-KLM and Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific – often under contract for forwarders and integrators like UPS, Fedex and DHL.

Gulf carriers Qatar Airways and Emirates as well as Turkish Airlines, all slammed by the long-haul travel collapse, can leverage their vast connecting hubs. Turkish has begun flying China’s Sinovac vaccine to Brazil and, like many peers, is increasing its cold chain capacity and storage.

While the earnings windfall is “difficult to quantify”, Cathay commercial chief Ronald Lam told analysts recently, “there will be a positive impact either directly through vaccine transportation or the surge in overall cargo demand.”

Freight is already a bright spot. Many airlines are making unprecedented cargo profits in 2020 even while chalking up record losses overall.

Before the crisis, half the world’s air cargo travelled on some 2,000 freighters, and the rest on passenger jets.

So as lockdowns grounded flights, cargo rates soared, helping carriers keep remaining passenger routes open and avoid more red ink. Cargo’s share of revenue will triple to 36 per cent this year as prices or yields rise 30 per cent, airline body IATA projects.

“The profit margins of all the cargo operations will be very strong in 2020 as a result of the extraordinary circumstances, and will be sustained at that level in 2021 as a result of the vaccine distribution,” HSBC analyst Andrew Lobbenberg said.

Carriers joining the airlift can expect “a very significant impact on the cargo economics”, he said in a note.

Flying one dose to every human would fill 8,000 747s, IATA estimates. While a minority of vaccine deployments may not need air transport, many require two shots per person.

Some freight operators are already seeing other goods bumped off flights by vaccines, trade newsletter The Loadstar reported here.

“There’s a lot less air capacity in the market,” United Airlines cargo chief Christopher Busch told Reuters. “So we need to balance not only what vaccines are coming, but how we continue to move the product that was moving before.”

IATA, representing 290 airlines, warns that vaccine rollout could be “compromised” without an easing of the travel curbs and quarantines it has lobbied against.

“There are parts of the world that have no cargo operations once the passenger networks are grounded,” IATA head of cargo Glyn Hughes said.

But UNICEF, whose polio and other immunization campaigns were initially hit by lockdowns, believes lessons have been learned and is now focused on resisting cargo price hikes, as it sources COVID-19 vaccines for 92 poorer countries.

The U.N. children’s agency is having an “early conversation” with airlines to plan capacity and keep rates down, said transport chief Pablo Panadero, who still sees prices as high as twice pre-crisis levels.

“Of course we as UNICEF are making them aware of the humanitarian and even societal importance of these undertakings – this is getting their own industry back in business,” he said.

Cargo carriers may face reputational risk if they use the full clout of their current pricing power, observers warn.

“It’s not a good look to be seen to be profiteering,” said Frederic Horst, managing director of Cargo Facts Consulting.

But Horst expects no repeat of the scramble for masks and medical equipment earlier in the pandemic, when “a lot of government-organised charters were bringing this stuff in, and they were just overpaying.”

This time the airlift will be run by logistics firms who make smarter customers, he said.

“They understand when they’re being pulled over the table and will just go to another carrier.”