Sri Lanka: 40 test COVID positive, all arrivals from abroad; active cases 432

In Sri Lanka, forty persons were tested positive of COVID yesterday, all arrivals from abroad. Of them, 29 arrived from India while 11 arrived from the US. The flight carrying Sri Lankans from India had arrived on Monday while the flight from the US had reached yesterday.

With the fresh cases, the total count of COVID cases in the country has risen to 1,991. Out of them, a total of 1,548 have recovered while 432 active cases are currently under medical care. Around 900 of the infections were reported from a navy camp but the majority of them have already recovered. Sri Lanka has confirmed 11 deaths due to the epidemic. The country has been able to check COVID spread with no community cases reported for around a couple of months while last weekend saw no positive cases. Life has returned to normalcy with schools beginning to open from next week in phases. The country will hold Parliamentary elections on August 5th and preparations regarding it have commenced amidst strict health protocols.

Bangladesh to use multiple test methods for Coronavirus

In light of increasing cases of Coronavirus infection in the country, the government of Bangladesh is planning to significantly expand the testing of Coronavirus in the country by using multiple methods of detection.

The Director-General of Directorate General of Health Services in Bangladesh (DGHS) Prof. Abul Kalam Azad told the official news agency BSS on Tuesday that the testing facilities in the country have been expanded but this appears not to be sufficient. He said that the health department is planning to use multiple testing methods including antigen, nucleic acid and antibody dry and wet tests from next month.

Speaking about the shortage of testing equipment, Prof. Abul Kalam Azad said that the government was importing 20,000-30,000 testing kits even while it was difficult to get these from one source due to growing global demand and restrictions on exports in various countries.

Bangladesh is currently carrying out 15,000 to 18,000 Coronavirus tests daily using the RT-PCR method though its 62 labs across the country. Till Tuesday, it had carried out 6,44,011 Coronavirus tests.

Till Tuesday, Bangladesh has reported 1,19, 198 corona positive cases in the country. The death toll due to Coronavirus in the country stood at 1545 on Tuesday.

At the global level, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases have exceeded 90 lakhs, with nearly four lakh 70 thousand fatalities. According to data compiled by John Hopkins University, 90 lakhs six thousand 757 cases of Novel Coronavirus have been reported across the world.

The United States continues to remain the worst-hit with 22 lakh 91 thousand 353 cases and one lakh 20 thousand 106 deaths, followed by Brazil 10,83 thousand 341 cases and over 50 thousand deaths and Russia reported five lakh 84 thousand 680 cases and over eight thousand deaths. Other countries with over two lakh cases include India, Britain, Spain, Peru, Italy, Chile and Iran.