Dhaka, June 13 (IANS) Bangladesh on Friday recorded two new Covid-19 deaths during the past 24 hours, taking the overall death toll to 29,502 since the epidemic began.

The country on June 5 recorded its first Covid-19 fatality this year when a man died from the infectious disease in the capital Dhaka.

The country also reported 15 new Covid-19 cases, with the daily test positivity rate jumping to 8.62 per cent in the 24 hours till 8:00 am local time Friday. Official data showed that 174 samples were tested in the last 24 hours.

The interim government in the country has said that it is planning a campaign soon to offer Covid-19 vaccine doses in order to boost people’s fading immunity against the infectious disease.

Abu Jafor, Director General of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), said on Wednesday that the campaign will be launched to inoculate people above the age of 60, frontline workers and those suffering from comorbidities.

He said DGHS has a stock of approximately 1.7 million Covid-19 vaccine shots for the vaccination campaign, Xinhua news agency reported. Amid a fresh rise in Covid-19 infections in several Southeast Asian countries, the Bangladeshi interim government has already asked people to refrain from travelling to those destinations unless absolutely necessary.

The DGHS under the Ministry of Health has also instructed the relevant authorities to enhance health screening and surveillance measures at all ports to contain the spread of the infection.

The directives, which were issued Monday, stated that new subvariants of the coronavirus are spreading in several neighbouring countries.

As many as 13 new Covid-19 cases were reported in Bangladesh till Tuesday morning and the country reported 10 new Covid cases on Wednesday.

–IANS

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