WEB DESK
The COVID 19 death toll in Bangladesh crossed 14,000 as 77 people died in the country over the last 24 hours on Saturday. During the same period 4334 fresh COVID 19 cases were detected in the country taking the total number of people infected by the virus to more than 8.83 lakh.
However, the sample positivity rate continued to climb up in the country. According to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), the positivity rate on Saturday went up to 22.50 percent from 21.22 percent on Friday and 19.93 percent a day earlier.
Meanwhile, people started leaving Dhaka and surrounding districts for their home towns and villages as the government announced a hard lockdown starting from Monday during which movement of vehicles and people will be completely restricted. Big rush was observed at bus and ferry terminals even while the neighbouring districts of Dhaka are already under lockdown.
Amid surging cases and shortage of vaccines, the US government has announced that it will gift 2.5 million doses of the Moderna vaccine to Bangladesh. US Ambassador to Bangladesh Earl R. Miller said in a twitter post on Saturday that Bangladesh will soon receive the 2.5 million doses of the vaccine from the US through the COVAX platform of the WHO.