13 new COVID-19 cases reported in Bangladesh

Bangladesh has confirmed 13 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours to 7pm on Tuesday, bringing the total number of infections this year to 215.

Of the 215, 57 cases were detected in the first 10 days of June alone.

Amid these developments, the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) reported the first death due to COVID-19 in Dhaka on Thursday — the first such fatality in nearly one and a half years.

According to DGHS, the latest cases were identified after testing 101 samples, resulting in a positivity rate of 12.87 percent. All newly infected individuals are residents of the Dhaka Metropolitan Area.

Since the onset of the pandemic in 2020, Bangladesh has tested 15,726,224 samples, confirming a total of 2,051,739 COVID-19 cases.

Of these, 29,500 people have died from the infection.

In 2023, as many as 37 people died due to COVID-19 after 1,368 had died in 2022.

The virus caused 7,559 fatalities in 2020 before another 20,513 people died in 2021, registering the deadliest year of the pandemic in Bangladesh.

Earlier, the DGHS issued precautionary measures in response to a surge in cases of new sub-variants of COVID-19 in several neighbouring countries, including India.

On Monday, the authorities have advised against non-essential travel to India and other countries experiencing virus outbreaks. At the same time, increased health screening and monitoring have been instructed at all land and airports to help contain the risk.