Bangladesh today registered 261 deaths in past 24 hours, the second highest single-day toll since the pandemic’s outbreak while it logged 8,136 COVID-19 positive cases during the same period.

“The pandemic claimed 261 lives in a span of 24 hours, pushing the nationwide coronavirus death toll to 22,411 so far,” Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) said in its routine daily statement.

An analysis of the official data suggests that 2,527 out of 8,136 COVID-19 positive cases were detected in Dhaka city alone in the past 24 hours while the virus claimed 51 out of 261 lives in the city during the same period.

The official tally showed the virus infected 13,43,396 so far while the country posted 264 COVID-19 deaths on July 5 , the highest single-day toll, it added.

It said 25.65 percent of the 31,714 samples collected in 24 hours were tested positive while the infection rate was only 2.30 percent just on February 8 this year as during the late winter season, the rate started decreasing sharply.

The recovery count rose to 11,88,820 after another 16,383 patients were discharged from the hospitals during the past one day.

The DGHS statistics showed of the people infected from the beginning, 88.49 percent recovered, while 1.67 percent died.

The DGHS said among the total 22,411 fatalities, 10,057 deaths occurred in Dhaka division, 4,304 in Chattogram, 1,707 in Rajshahi, 3,011 in Khulna, 739 in Barishal, 848 in Sylhet, 1,120 in Rangpur and 625 in Mymensingh division.

It said Bangladesh’s COVID-19 confirmed cases crossed 5,000 mark on March 29, 2021, 6,000 mark on April 1, 2021, 7,000 mark on April 4, 2021, 8,000 mark on June 24, 2021, 9,000 mark on July 5, 11,000 mark July 6, 13,000 mark on July 12, 12,000 mark on July 13, 14,000 mark on July 27 and 16,000 mark on July 28.

According to month-wise statistics last year, 51 COVID-19 positive cases were detected in March 2020, 7616 in April, 39,486 in May, 98,330 in June, 92,178 in July, 75,335 in August, 50,483 in September, 44, 205 in October, 57,248 in November and 48,578 in December.

The beginning of the current year witnessed a drastic fall of coronavirus cases in the country but the trend lasted for only two months — 21,629 cases were detected in January and 11,077 in February.

After the drastic fall of COVID-19 confirmed cases, the country witnessed sharp increase of infection as 65,079 cases were reported in March, 2021 and 1,47,837 cases in April.

The country again witnessed a fall in May, 2021 as it recorded 41,408 cases. From the beginning of June, 2021, the country recorded a sharp rise with 1,12,718 cases, the DGHS said.