Bangladesh on Monday notched a 31.91 per cent COVID-19 infection rate, making it by far the highest record of daily infection rate in the country.

Directorate General of Health Services additional director general Nasima Sultana said that 1,356 more COVID-19 patients were detected in the past 24 hours after testing 4,249 samples, with an infection reate of 31.91 per cent.

On July 15, the second highest daily rate of infection, 25.23 per cent, was recorded.

Bangladesh as of Monday, tallied 2,42,102 cases of COVID-19 and 3,184 deaths, including 30 in the past 24 hours, said Nasima in the daily online bulletin on Covid-19 situation.

The rate of infection slowed down in the past two weeks, but made a sudden lift during Eid holidays. On Sunday, the rate of infection was 24.05 per cent.

A day before Eid holidays had begun, health minister Zahid Maleque said that the rate of COVID-19 infection might increase due to public movement during the festival.

The overall rate of COVID-19 infection is 20.28 per cent, which made Bangladesh one of top 10 countries having highest COVID-19 infection rate.

Bordering India’s rate of infection is less than 9 per cent while it is a little above 14 per cent in Pakistan.

Bangladesh registered the first COVID-19 cases on March 8 and the first death on March 18.

The country entered in the 22nd week of infection on Sunday.

In the 21st week, ended Saturday, the rate of infection was 22.21 per cent with detection of 18,682 cases and 84,131 tests.

The rate of infection was 22.81 per cent in the 20th week with 19,112 cases and 83,806 tests.

The 19th week witnessed highest infection rate of 23.74 with 20,937 cases and 88,209 tests.

The number of tests dropped during the Eid holidays. The number of tests was 3,684 on Sunday while it was 8,802 on Saturday.

During her bulletin, Nasima Sultana urged people to come to tests them if they have symptoms of COVID-19.

‘Without tests and detection of COVID-19 patients, it could not be possible to prevent spread of the highly contagious virus,’ she said.