A growing number of coronavirus cases and an alarming uptrend in the daily infection rate are posing big challenges to Bangladesh in its fight against the deadly virus.

A 2.75 percent rise in the infection rate was recorded on Sunday (17.65 percent) compared to 14.9 percent a day earlier.

The country’s health authorities reported 3,908 new cases and 35 Covid-related deaths during a 24-hour period until Sunday morning.

Now, the local fatality tally stands at 8,904, according to a handout of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS). The country reported its first coronavirus-related death on March 18 last year.

Also read: Covid-19: Bangladesh records 3-month high 39 deaths; 3,674 fresh cases

Bangladesh, which announced its first cases on March 8 last year, has so far reported 595,714 infections.

However, the mortality rate was recorded at 1.4 percent on Sunday which was 1.5 percent on Saturday.

So far, 535,941 patients (89.97 percent) have recovered, including 2,019 in the last 24 hours, according to DGHS.

So far, 4,588,830 samples, including 22,136 in the past 24 hours, have been tested.

Also read: Global Covid-19 cases top 126.6 million

Coronavirus cases were first reported in China in December 2019. Until Sunday, countries around the world confirmed 126.6 million cases with 2.77 million fatalities, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Fight against Covid

Along with a countrywide vaccination drive, the government has taken a tougher stance to tackle the transmission of Covid-19.

The Health Ministry sent letters to districts, directing the officials concerned to impose fines on people flouting Covid protocols.

Meanwhile, the closure of schools and colleges were extended until May 23 as the situation showed no sign of improvement.

Also read: 36 countries yet to get Covid jabs: WHO

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday said she wants quick steps to fight the fresh surge of Covid-19 cases. “We’ll have to take prompt steps as we did in the past,” she said at a virtual discussion.

She said health guidelines and safe physical distance will have to be maintained at every programme and the use of face masks must be ensured.