The number of Covid cases exceeded 19 lakh in Bangladesh since the emergence of the disease on March 8, 2020, with the detection of 5,023 new cases in 24 hours ending 8:00 am on Saturday.

The Directorate General of Health Services reported 20 more deaths caused by the disease in the latest reporting cycle in which 30,448 people got tested for Covid-19.

The test positivity rate increased to 17 per cent from 15.46 a day earlier, the daily Covid situation report of the DGHS said.

Government and independent research revealed that the Omicron variant replaced the Delta variant completely in the last week of January.

The researches revealed that the Omicron version mostly in circulation in the country was a sub-variant, a variant different from the original one that hit the country in December.

Omicron, first detected in multiple countries in late November 2021, was first detected in Bangladesh in early December.

The actual infection  number would have been much higher if enough tests were done, authorities said.

 According to scientists, the highly transmissible Omicron variant — four times more infectious than the Alpha and Beta variants and twice as infectious as Delta — causes less severe illness among vaccinated people.

Omicron is adept at dodging immunity and its incubation period is half of that of other variants with a record number of mutations it has gone through, scientists said.

Twelve of Saturday’s 20 new Covid dead were men and the others women.

Age-wise, 13 of them were above 60 years, with three in their 50s, one in their 40s, two in their 30s and one below 10 years of age, the DGHS said.

Thirteen of them died in the Dhaka division while Rajshahi and Khulna reported two deaths each.

Barishal, Sylhet and Rangpur reported one death each.

With a population of some 170 million, Bangladesh has 13,415 general and 1,251 intensive care unit beds dedicated to treating Covid patients.

On Saturday, five of the country’s 64 districts reported 40 per cent or higher test positivity.

District-wise, the country’s highest test positivity of over 49 per cent was logged by Faridpur.

The northern division of Rangpur reported the country’s highest 23 per cent test positivity among the divisions.

The test positivity in the Dhaka division was 18 per cent.

The current wave is likely to further increase the health burden of Bangladesh with its chronic health sector weaknesses.

A recent government study revealed that half of the Covid patients in the country suffered long-Covid complications a year after recovering from the disease irrespective of the severity of illness during infection.

People meanwhile continued to violate health rules as they engaged in daily-life activities, often without wearing masks, mandatory under fresh restrictions.

People are mingling in large social, political and religious events in excess of the limit set by the government for public gatherings.

All public transports are operating at full capacity in violation of the fresh restrictions.

With the latest cases, the number of active cases reached 211,233 while the cumulative number of cases to exactly 1904826.