Bangladesh registers single coronavirus death as infections slow

By SM Najmus Sakib

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AA) - Bangladesh registered a single coronavirus death Thursday as infections have been on a downtrend for several months amid a nationwide inoculation campaign.

The male victim was between 51 and 60 years old and his death brought the number to 27,907 with a 1.78% death rate, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).

The south Asian country of 165 million also registered 237 new infections in the last 24 hours, taking infections to 1.57 million with a 1.21% daily positivity rate, said the DGHS.

The number of recoveries stands at 1.53 million taking that figure to 97.71% with 231 new recoveries.

- Bangladesh to get more vaccines

The US allocated another 14 million Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines for Bangladesh under the UN COVAX initiative, according to the Bangladesh Foreign Ministry.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken moderated a high-level ministerial virtual meeting on the virus and beyond on Wednesday where Bangladesh’s foreign minister and 25 of his counterparts participated.

“Bangladesh demanded the vaccines to be made public good and affordable to all countries, and assist and encourage pharmaceutical companies like that of Bangladesh to produce it locally,” Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen was quoted in the statement.

Saudi Arabia announced it will donate 1.5 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine that will be shipped within days, he said.

Poland donated 3.2 million AstraZeneca vaccines to Bangladesh in a form of solidarity, according to the ministry.

Momen disclosed that Bangladesh has administered 78 million doses -- 46 million people received their first dose and second 32 million are fully vaccinated. Bangladesh needs more doses to vaccinate at least 80% of its population, he said.

The country has also started this week to inoculate students between 12 and 17 years old.

Initially, 5,000 students will be vaccinated daily at vaccination centers across the country with a target to inoculate 3 million in the first phase, according to the Health Ministry.

- Bangladesh approves coronavirus pill

Bangladesh approved the first-ever COVID-19 molnupiravir pill Tuesday to two Bangladeshi pharmaceutical companies to produce a generic version to treat the virus by US drugmaker Merck.

The medicine by US drugmaker Merck can reduce deaths by 50%, according to Bangladesh’s drug administration authority.

It is available for sale in Bangladesh​​​​​​​.