The tally of coronavirus infections in Bangladesh has surpassed 200,000 in another grim milestone marking the rapid spread of the disease that has upended millions of lives in the country.

The caseload surged to 202,066, exactly a month after reaching 100,000, with 2,709 people testing positive for COVID-19 in the 24 hours to 8am Saturday, according to the health directorate.

The recovery count jumped by 1,373 to 110,098 in the same period, DGHS Additional Director General Nasima Sultana said in a media briefing. The rate of recovery from the disease currently stands at 50.49 percent.

A total of 10,923 samples were tested at authorised labs across the country with a positivity rate of 24.8 percent in the last 24 hours, according to government data.

Bangladesh reported its first cases of COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the novel coronavirus, on Mar 8. It took 87 days for the disease to infect 50,000 people but the tally doubled to 100,000 on Jun 18 in the space of just 16 days.

In a bid to contain the rampant spread of the disease, the government enforced a nationwide lockdown for more than two months before lifting the restrictions on May 31.

Since then, the epidemic has continued to rampage through the country at an alarming rate. The case count hit 100 on Apr 6 before crossing the 1,000-mark a week later on Apr 14. By May 25, the number of cases had exceeded 20,000 and reached 50,000 on Jun 2. The tally subsequently surged past 100,000 on Jun 18 and doubled over the next 30 days.

Globally, over 14.1 million people have been infected by the novel coronavirus and 602,695 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.

The official figures see Bangladesh's coronavirus caseload overtake Germany's, making the South Asian nation the 17th worst-affected country in the world behind France, according to the data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

The mortality rate in Bangladesh is 1.28 percent compared to 2.6 percent in neighbouring India and almost 4 percent in the UK.

But the South Asian nation is lagging behind most other countries in terms of samples testing. For comparison, in the US, 150,000 out of every 1 million people has been brought within the ambit of testing. But in Bangladesh, the ratio is only 6,000 for every 1 million people, yielding a positivity rate of 19.86 percent so far.

https://bdnews24.com/health/2020/07/18/bangladesh-s-virus-caseload-crosses-200000-another-34-die