After a gap of around four months, a fourth wave of the coronavirus pandemic is now knocking on doors in the country.

“The daily corona infection rate has crossed 10 per cent today. Definitely, we are entering a fourth wave of the coronavirus infection,” Prof Dr Ahmedul Kabir, additional director general (admin) of Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), told the Daily Sun.

He warned if people remain reluctant to maintain health guidelines, the fatal virus will spread rapidly.

“People should maintain health guidelines, including wearing of mask, and should take corona vaccine as soon as possible,” Ahmedul Kabir added.

According to the DGHS, the country now sees a sharp rise in corona infection cases. The daily infection rate has been increasing for a week.

One died and 873 new cases were reported in the country in the last 24 hours till 8am on Monday. The country saw the first corona death after 20 days.

Earlier, 596 new corona cases reported on Sunday, 304 cases on Saturday and 433 cases on Friday. The number of daily infection cases has crossed 50 since June 7.

At the same time, the daily infection rate has reported 10.87 percent on Monday. It was 7.38 percent on Sunday, 5.94 percent on Saturday and 6.27 percent on Friday. The daily infection rate crossed one percent on June 7.
According to the WHO, if the daily infection rate remains below five percent for two consecutive weeks, it can be considered that the country’s coronavirus situation is under control.

So far, 29,132 coronavirus infected patients have died and 19,57,200 cases were detected in the country till Monday.

Meanwhile, 92 corona patients were recovered in the last 24 hours, raising the total number to 19,05,899. The recovery rate also has stood at 97.38 percent.

Some 8,028 samples were tested in the past 24 hours till Monday morning while it was 8,074 on Sunday.

The DGHS said the coronavirus infection is again increasing at an alarming rate as in the last one week (June 13-19), the corona detection rate has increased by 363 percent as compared to the previous week.

In the previous week, the growth rate was 116.1 percent. A total of 2,212 cases were reported but there was no death in the corona infection during the time.

“All have to remain alert about the fresh increasing of the corona cases. There is no alternative to maintaining health guidelines and wearing mask should be mandatory,” said Dr Alamgir, principal scientific officer of the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR).

Asked about the virus, the virologist said Omicron variant of coronavirus is now dominating in the country now. “If people do not maintain the health guidelines, the virus infection may be severe to people who didn’t take vaccine and have co morbidity,” he added.

Talking to the Daily Sun, Prof Dr Nazrul Islam, a member of the National Technical Advisory Committee on Covid-19, emphasised the need for maintaining the health guanines and taking vaccine to fight the disease.

“Now the authorities should carry out study to find out the reason behind this sudden increase in the corona infections. And step should be taken accordingly,” the noted virologist said.

Health and Family Welfare Minister Zahid Maleque has recently warned if the corona infection cases increase further, the number of mortality may go up here.

He also called upon the people to maintain health guidelines and take vaccine.

The National Technical Advisory Committee on Covid-19 has recently observed that the corona infection cases are increasing.

The committee has recommended that the government should make wearing of mask mandatory in all sectors and execute the ‘No Mask No Service’ policy strongly.

They have also recommended preparing hospitals, Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and medical staff to provide treatment for the increased number of corona patients.