March 29, 2024, 4:10 am


Staff Correspondent

Published:
2021-06-09 22:45:42 BdST

Bangladesh expands rapid antigen testing


The number of rapid antigen tests in Bangladesh has gradually been increasing over the past week, especially after infections began to rise at an alarming rate in the border areas of the country, a BBC Bangla report said on Wednesday.

The detection of the Indian variant of Covid-19 in Bangladesh, also known as the 'Delta' type, played a big role in increasing the number of rapid antigen testing, the report said.‎

The government in October last year approved rapid antigen testing in Bangladesh. Two months later in December, the first official antigen test was conducted.

How many antigen tests have been done in Bangladesh?

‎When antigen test officially started in Bangladesh, test kits were initially sent to some hospitals located in 10 districts of the country. Testing was officially launched with the Sylhet district.

‎‎The health department said a total of 334 locations in the country now have rapid antigen testing facility.

A total of 93,380 rapid antigen tests have been conducted in Bangladesh so far, according to the department’s latest figures.

‎In the last 24 hours, over 19,000 samples were tested, of which 2,500 were conducted using the rapid antigen system.

The number of daily antigen tests was at least 1,000 fewer last week.

Overall Covid-19 situation in Bangladesh

Bangladesh on Tuesday registered 44 more coronavirus-related deaths and 2,322 fresh cases in 24 hours, with the Covid situation worsening post the detection of the Delta variant in different parts of the country.

Although district administrations have imposed restrictions in most of the frontier districts to bring the situation under control, the infection and death rates are on the rise.

The latest death toll pushed up the fatalities to 12,913. The Covid-19 death toll crossed the 12,000-mark in Bangladesh on May 11.

With the new cases, the total caseload rose to 8,15,282, said the Directorate General of Health Services.

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