15 new COVID-19 cases reported in Bangladesh

Bangladesh has confirmed 15 new COVID-19 cases over the past day, bringing the total number of infections this year to 240.

Of the 240 cases this year, 82 were detected in the first 12 days of June alone, indicating a resurgence of the virus in the country.

According to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), the new cases were identified after testing 134 samples in the 24 hours leading up to Thursday morning. The positivity rate for this period stood at 11.19 percent.

In Dhaka city, eight people tested positive from 62 samples. In Mymensingh, two cases were found from seven tests. Chattogram reported four cases from 53 tests, while one case was identified in Brahmanbaria from three samples.

Meanwhile, 18 patients have recovered during the same period.

Since the onset of the pandemic in 2020, Bangladesh has tested over 15.72 million samples, returning more than 2.05 million cases of positivity.

Of these, 29,500 people have died from the infection, 22 being recorded in 2024.

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.