Covid-19 claimed the lives of 50 more people while 1,742 new cases were detected in the country in the past 24 hours ending at 8:00am on Wednesday.

With the new figures, the country’s Covid death toll has reached 11,755 and the number of cases 7,67,338, since the first cases of coronavirus infections were detected in the country on March 8, 2020, according to the Directorate General of Health Services.

The DGHS in the daily Covid update said that 20,284 samples were tested across the country in the past 24 hours and 8.59 per cent of them were found positive for Covid-19.

DGHS spokesperson Robed Amin in a virtual briefing on Wednesday said that the Covid situation had improved in the country significantly over the past one week as the virus transmission rate had continued to drop.

Stating that the Covid test positivity rate came down to 8.71 per cent on Tuesday, he, however, said that there was no room for complacency over the current situation as the rate might spike again  for any kind of negligence.

Robed said that the health safety rules must be maintained and public movement would have to be restricted to maintain the declining trend of the virus transmission.

He urged people to wear masks whenever they went out of their homes as a mask was the best preventive gear against contracting Covid-19.

The country had witnessed a sudden surge in Covid cases, deaths and positivity rate since the beginning of March till the past week following a comparatively better situation in January-February.

The positivity rate went above 23 per cent in the first week of April but the rate has continued to drop since April 17.

In the past few days, the positivity rate remained below 10 per cent.

In January-February, the positivity rate remained between 2.5 per cent to 5 per cent.

The government on Wednesday extended the ongoing restrictions on public movement and activities until May 16.

The government enforced the restrictions on April 5 as the situation deteriorated but many people have ignored the restrictions for the last few days.

The DGHS in the daily update said that three more Covid patients died at home in the past 24 hours.

In the past four days, 12 Covid patients died at home.

The DGHS said that among the 50 people died in the past 24 hours, 28 were from Dhaka division, 16 from Chattogram, three from Khulna, two from Sylhet and one was from Rajshahi.

Among the deceased, 30 were above 60 years of age while 13 were between 51 years 60 years, five between 41 years and 50 years and two between 31 years and 40 years.

The country had 57,118 active cases on Wednesday.